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s^"^ C A E T U L 1
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
in i8o A.D.
Zbc xaorlb's Classics
XLIV
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
VOL. II
''-W^r
THE HISTORY OF
THE DECLINE & FALL
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
BY
EDWARD GIBBON
wm
THE HISTORY OF
THE DECLINE &' FALL OF
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
BY
EDWARD GIBBON
VOL. II
HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON, NEW YORK AND TORONTO
Edward Gibbon
Born, Putney .... April, 27, 1737
Died, St. James's Street, London . Januarv 16, 1794
The first volume of " The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire" was first published in 1776, and the
last in 1788. In " The World's Classics" the work
is contained in seven volumes. Vol. II was jmb-
lished in 1903, and reprinted in 1905 and 1907.
Printed by BALLAXirxE, Haxson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
* '^•'i
JJ ^
3// ^
/ 9^^
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME
CHAPTER XV
THE PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN' RELIGION'^ AND THE
SENTIMENTS, .IIAXXERS, NU3IBERS AND CONDITION
OF THE PRnilTIVE CHRISTIANS
PAGE
Importance of the Inquiry ...... 1
Its Difficulties . . ' 2
Five Causes of the Growth of Christianity ... 2
I. The First Cause. Zeal of the Jews' . . , 3
Its gradual increase ....... 4
Their Religion better suited to Defence than to
Conquest ........ 5
More Liberal Zeal of Christianity .... 7
Obstinacy and Reasons of the Believing Jews . . 8
The Nazarene Church of Jerusalem .... 9
The Ebionites 11
The Gnostics 12
Their Sects, Progress, and Influence . . . . 1-i
The Daemons considered as the Gods of Antiquity . 16
Abhorrence of the Christians for Idolatry ... 17
Ceremonies 18
Arts 19
Festivals 19
Zeal for Christianity ....... "0
II. The Second Cause. The Doctrine of the Im-
mortahty of the Soul among the Philosopher^ 21-22
Among the Pagans of Greece and Rome . . 23
Among the Barbarians and the Jews . . 24
Among the Christians . . . . .25
Approaching End of the World ..... 25
Doctrine of the Millennium .... 26-27
Conflagration of Rome and of the World ... 28
i20Mao
vi CONTENTS
PAGE
The Pagans devoted to Eternal Punishment . . 29
Were often converted by their Fears ... 31
III. The Third Cause. iVIiraculous powers of the
Primitive Church. ...... 31
Their Truth contested .33
Our perplexity in defining the miraculous Period . 33
Use of the Primitive Miracles 35
IV. The Fourth Cause. Virtues of the first
Christians ........ 36
Effects of their Repentance 36
Care of their Reputation ...... 37
Morality of the Fathers 38
Principles of Human Nature ..... 39
The Primitive Christians condemn Pleasure and
Luxury . . . . . . . .40
Their Sentiments concerning Marriage and Chastity 41
Their Aversion to the Business of War and Govern-
ment ......... 43
V. The Fifth Cause. The Christians active in the
Government of the Church ..... 44
Its Primitive Freedom and Equality .... 46
Institution of Bishops as Presidents of the College of
Presbyters ........ 46
Provincial Councils 49
Union of the Church ...... 49
Progress of Episcopal Authority .... 50
Pre-eminence of the Metropolian Churches . . 51
Ambition of the Roman Pontiff ..... 52
Laity and Clergy ....... 53
Oblations and Revenue of the Church . . 54
Distribution of the Revenue ..... 56
Excommunication ....... 58
Public Penance ........ 59
Thp Dignity of Episcopal Government ... 60
Recapitulation of the five Causes .... 61
Weakness of Polytheism ...... 62
The Scepticism of the Pagan World proved favom--
able to the new Religion ..... 63
And the Peace and Union of the Roman Empire . 64
Historical View of the Progress of Christianitv . 65
In the East \ .65
The Church of Antioch 67
In Egypt 68
In Rome 69
In Africa and the Western Provinces ... 70
Beyond the Limits of the Roman Empire ... 73
General Proportion of Christians and Pagans , . 74
CONTENTS vii
PAGE
TVTiether the first Christians •were mean and ignorant 75
Some Exceptions with regard to Learning . . 75
Some Exceptions with regard to Rank and Fortune 76
Christianity most favourably received by the Poor
and Simple 77
Eejected by some eminent Men of the first and
second Centuries ....... 77
Their Xeglect of Prophecy 78
Their Xeglect of Miracles ...... 79
General Silence concerning the Darkness of the
Passion ........ 79
CHAPTER XVI
THE CONDUCT OF THE ROMAN GOVERXMEXT TOWARDS
THE CHRISTIANS^ FROM THE REIGX OF NERO TO
THAT OF CONSTANTINE
Christianity persecuted by the Pvoman Emperors . 81
Inquiry into their ^lotives . . . . .82
Rebellious Spirit of the Jews ..... 83
Toleration of the Jewish Religion . . " . 84
The Jews were a People which followed, the Christians
a Sect which deserted, the Religion of their
Fathers . . . ' 86
Christianity acciised of Atheism, and mistaken by
the People and Philosophers .... 87
The Union and Assemblies of the Christians con-
sidered as a dangerous Conspiracy ... 89
Their Manners calumniated ..... 90
Their Imprudent Defence ...... 91
Idea of the Conduct of the Emperors towards the
Chrisrtians ........ 93
They neglected the Christians as a Sect of Jews . 94
The Fire of Rome under the Reign of Xero . . 96
Cruel Punishment of the Christians as the Incen-
diaries of the City 97
Remarks on the Passage of Tacitus relative to the '
Persecution of the Christians by Xero . . 99
Oppression of the Jews and Christians by Domitian 103
Execution of Clemens the Consul . '. . . 105
Ignorance of Pliny concerning the Christians . . 106
Trajan and his Successors establish a legal Mode of
proceeding against them . , . . . 107
VOL. II. a 2
CONTENTS
A.D. PAGE
Popular Clamours 108
Trials of the Christians . . . . ' . . 110
Humanity of the Roman Magistrates . . . Ill
Inconsiderable NumVjer of Martyrs .... 112
Example of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage . . . 114
His Danger and Flight ...... 114
257 His Banishment . .... 115
His Condemnation ...... 116
His Martyrdom . . . . , . . .117
Various Incitements to Martyrdom . . . . 118
Ardour of the first Christians 120
Gradual Relaxation 122
Three Methods of escaping Martyrdom . . . 122
Alternatives of Severity and Toleration . . . 124
The Ten Persecutions 124
Supposed Edicts of Tiberius and Marcus Antoninus 125
180 State of the Christians in the Reigns of Commodus
and Severus
211-249 Of the Successors of Severus
Of Maximin, Philip, and Decius
253-260 Of Valerian, Gallienus, and his Successors .
260 Paul of Samosata, his IManners ....
270 He is degraded from the See of Antioch .
274 The Sentence is executed by Am'elian
284-303 Peace and Prosperity of the Church under
Diocletian . . . . . ' .
Progress of Zeal and Superstition among the Pagan
Maximian and Galerius punish a few Christian
Soldiers ........
,' Galerius prevails on Diocletian to begin a general
Persecution . . . . . . . . 139
303 Demolition of the Church of Nicomedia . . . 140
The first Edict against the Christians . . . 141
Zeal and Punishment of a Chi'istian .... 142
Fire of the Palace of Nicomedia imputed to the
Christians ........ 143
Execution of the first Edict 144
Demolition of the Churches ..... 145
Subsequent Edicts 146
303-311 General Idea of the Persecution . . . . 147
In the Western Pro-\ances, under Constantius and
Constantine. .......
In Italy and Africa, under Maximian and Severus .
And under Maxentius ......
In Illyricum and the East, under Galerius and
Maximin ........
311 Galerius publishes an Edict of Toleration .
126
127
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
137
147
149
149
151
152
CONTENTS ix
A.D. PAGE
Peace of the Church 152
Maximin prepares to renew the Persecution . . 153
313 End of the Persecutions 154
Probable Account of the Sufferings of the Martyrs
and Confessors ....... 155
Number of ^lartyrs ....... 157
Conclusion ... 159
CHAFfER XVII
FOUNDATIOX OF CONSTANTIXOPLE — POLITICAL, SYSTEM OF
CONSTAXTINEj AND HIS SUCCESSORS — ailLITARY DIS-
CIPLINE THE PALACE — THE FINANCES
324 Design of a new Capital ...... 161
Situation of Byzantium . . . . . . 162
Description of Constantinople 103
The Bosphorus 163
The Port of Constantinople ..... 165
The Propontis . 166
The Hellespont 166
Advantages of Constantinople 168
Foundation of the Citv ...... 169
Its Extent ..." 170
Progress of the Work ...... 172
Edifices 174
Population 17G
Pri\nleges ......... 17S
330 or 334 Dedication 179
300-500 Form of Government in the Ptoraan Empire . 180
Hierachy of the State 181
Three Ptanks of Honour 183
Fo;xr Divisions of Office 183
I. The Consuls 184
The Patricians 186
II. The Prtetorian Prfefects 188
The Prsefects of Piome and Constantinople . 190
The Proconsuls, Vice-prsefects, &c. . . 192
The Governors of the Pro\inces . . . 193
The Profession of the Law .... 196
III. The :\liHtary Officers 198
Distinction of the Troops .... 200
Keduction of the Legions .... 202
Difficulty of Le\'ies 203
Increase of Barbarian Auxiliaries . . . 205
X CONTENTS
A.D. PAGE
IV. Seven Ministers of the Palace .... 207
1. The Chamberlain 207
2. The Master of the Offices . . . .208
3. The Qusestor 209
4. The Public Treasurer 210
Kationales ....... 211
5. The Private Treasurer 211
6. The Counts of the Domestics .... 213
7. Protectores 213
Agents, or Official Spies ...... 213
Use of Torture 214
Finances ......... 216
The General Tribute, or Indiction .... 217
Assessed in the Form of a Capitation . . . 220
Capitation on Trade and Industry .... 225
Free Gifts 226
Conclusion . .227
CHAPTER XVIII
CHARACTER OF CONSTANTINE — GOTHIC WAR DEATH OP
CONSTANTINE DIVISION OP THE EMPIRE AMONG HIS
THREE SONS PERSIAN WAR TRAGIC DEATH OP
CONSTANTINE THE YOUNGER, AND CONSTANS
USURPATION of MAGNENTIUS — CIVIL WAR VICTORY
OP CONSTANTIUS
Character of Constantine 229
His Virtues 229
His Vices 231
His Family 233
Virtues of Crispus ....... 234
324 Jealousy of Constantine . . . . . . 235
325 Edict of Constantine .235
326 Disgrace and Death of Crispus 236
The Empress Fausta 237
The Sons and Nephews of Constantine . . . 240
Their Education 241
Manners of the Sarmatians 243
Their Settlement near the Danube .... 244
331 The Gothic War 245
334 Expulsion of the Sarmatians 248
CONTENTS xi
A.D. PAGE
337 Death and Funeral of Constantine .... 249
Factions of the Court ...... 250
3Iassacre of the Princes ...... 251
337 Di^^sion of the Empire ...... 253
310 Sapor, King of Persia 253
State of Mesopotamia and Armenia .... 255
342 Death of Tiridates 256
337-360 The Persian War 257
348 [344] Battle of Singara 257
338, 346, 350 Siege of Nisibis 259
340 CiWl War, and Death of Constantine . . . 261
350 Murder of Constans 262
Magnentius and Vetranio assume the Purple . . 264
Constantius refuses to treat 265
Deposes Vetranio , . . . . . . 267
351 Makes War against Magnentius .... 269
Battle of Mursa 271
352 Conquest of Italy 273
353 Last Defeat and Death of ^lagnentius . . . 274
CHAPTER XIX
CONSTANTIUS SOLE EMPEROR ELEVATION AND DEATH OF
GALLUS DANGER AND ELEVATION OF JULIAN SAR-
3IATIAN AND PERSIAN WARS VICTOKIES OF JULIAN
IN GAUL
Power of the Eunuchs 277
Education of G-allus and Julian .... 279
351 Gallus declared C'gesar ...... 280
Cruelty and Imprudence of Gallus .... 280
354 ^Massacre of the Imperial Ministers .... 282
Dangerous Situation of Gallus ..... 284
His Disgrace and Death 285
The Danger and Escape of Julian .... 287
355 He is sent to Athens ....... 288
Pv^called to Milan 289
Declared Caesar . . . . . . . .291
Fatal End of Sylvanus 293
.357 Constantius visits Rome ...... 294
A new Obelisk ........ 295
357, 358, 359 The Quadian and Sarmatian War . . 296
358 The Persian Negotiation ...... 300
359 Invasion of Mesopotamia by Sapor .... 302
xu
CONTENTS
A.D. PAGE
Siege of Amida 304
360 Siege of Singara 306
Conduct of the Romans ' 307
Invasion of Gaul by the Germans .... 309
Conduct of Julian 310
356 His first Campaign in Gaul ..... 312
357 His second Campaign ...... 313
Battle of Strasburg 315
358 Julian subdues the Franks 317
357, 358, 359 Makes three Expeditions beyond the Rhine 319 •
Restores the Cities of Gaul 321
Civil administration of Julian ..... 323
Description of Paris ....... 325
CHAPTER XX
THE MOTIVES^ PROGRESS, AND EFFECTS OF THE CON-
VERSION OF CONSTANTINE LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT
OF THE CHRISTIAN, OR CATHOLIC CHURCH
306-337 Date of the Conversion of Constantine
His Pagan Superstition ....
306-312 He protects the Christians of Gaul
313 Edict of Milan
Use and Beauty of the Christian Morality
Theory and Practice of Passive Obedience
Divine Right of Constantine
324 General Edict of Toleration
Loyalty and Zeal of the Christian Party .
Expectation and Belief of a Miracle .
I. The Labarum, or Standard of the Cross
II. The Dream of Constantine
III. Appearance of a Cross in the Sky
The Conversion of Constantine might be sincere
The fourth Eclogue of Virgil
Devotion and Privileges of Constantine
Delay of his Baptism till the approach of Death
Propagation of Christianity
312-438 Change of the National Religion
Distinction of the Spiritual and Temporal Povpers
State of the Bishops under the Christian Emperors
I. Election of Bishops
II, Ordination of the Clergy ....
III. Property .......
327
330
331
331
333
334
335
337
337
339
339
342
345
347
349
350
351
353
356
356
358
359
361
CONTENTS xui
PAGE
IV. Ci^^l Jurisdiction 366
Y. Spiritual Censures ...... 368
VI. Freedom of Public Preaching .... 370
VII. Privilege of Legislative Assemblies . . , 371
CHAPTER XXI
PERSECUTION' OF HERESY THE SCHISM OF THE DOXA-
TISTS THE ARIAX CONTROVERSY ATHAXASIUS
DISTRACTED STATE OF THE CHURCH AXD EMPIRE
UNDER CONSTANTIXE AND HIS SONS TOLERATION
OF PAGANISM
312 African Controversy 376
Councils of Kome and of Aries ..... 377
315 Schism of the Donatists ...... 378
The Trinitarian Controversy 379
B.C.
360 The System of Plato 380
The Logos 380
300 Taught in the Schools of Alexandria . . . 381
A.D.
97 Revealed by the Apostle St. John . . . .382
The Ebionites and Docetes 383
Mysterious Nature of the Trinity .... 384
Zeal of the Christians 385
Authority of the Church ...... 387
Factions 388
318 Heterodox Opinions of Arius 388
Three Systems of the Trinity 389
I. Arianism ........ 390
II. Tritheisra 390
III. Sabellianism 391
325 Council of Nice ....... 391
The Homoousion ....... 392
Arian Creeds 394
Arian Sects ........ 395
Faith of the Western, or Latin Church . . . 398
360 Council of Rimini 399
Conduct of the Emperors in the Arian Controversy . .399
324 Indifference of Constantino ..... 400
325 His Zeal 400
xiv CONTENTS
A.D. PAGE
328-337 He persecutes the Arian and the Orthodox Party 401
337-361 Constantius favours the Arians .... 403
Arian Councils ........ 404
Character and Adventures of Athanasius . . . 407
330 Persecution against Athanasius .... 410
336 His First Exile 412
341 His Second Exile 413
349 His Kestoration ....... 415
351 Resentment of Constantius ..... 417
353-355 Councils of Aries and Milan .... 418
355 Condemnation of Athanasius ..... 420
Exiles . . . . . . . . .422
356 Third Expulsion of Athanasius from Alexandria . 423
His Behaviour 426
356-362 His Retreat 427
Ai'ian Bishops 430
Divisions ......... 430
I. Rome 432
II. Constantinople ....... 433
Cruelty of the Arians ...... 436
354, &c. The Revolt and Fury of the Donatist Circum-
cellions 438
Their Religious Suicides ...... 440
312-361 General Character of the Christian Sects . . 441
Toleration of Paganism by Constantine . . .441
By his Sons 443
CHAPTER XXII
JULIAN IS DECLARED ESIPEROR BY THE LEGIONS OF GAUL
HIS MARCH AND SUCCESS — THE DEATH OF CON-
STANTIUS CIVIL AD3IINISTRATI0N OF JULIAN
The Jealousy of Constantius against Julian . . 447
Fears and Envy of Constantius .... 448
860 The Legions of Gaul are ordered to march into the
East 449
Their Discontents ....... 451
They proclaim Julian Emperor ..... 452
His protestations of Innocence ..... 454
His Embassy to Constantius ..... 456
360-361 His fourth and fifth Expeditions beyond the
Rhine 457
361 Fruitless Treaty and Declaration of War . . .459
CONTENTS XV
A.D. PAGE
Julian prepares to attack Constantius . . . 461
His march from the Rhine into Illyricum , . 463
He justifies his Cause ...... 466
Hostile Preparations 467
361 Death of Constantius 469
361 Julian enters Constantinople ..... 470
361 Is acknowledged by the whole Empire . . . 471
His civil Government and private Life . . . 471
Reformation of the Palace ...... 474
Chamber of Justice ....... 476
Pnnishment of the Innocent and the Guilty . . 477
Clemency of Julian ....... 479
His Love of Freedom and the Repubhc . . . 480
His care of the Grecian Cities ..... 482
•Julian, an Orator and a Judge ..... 483
His Character 484
CHAPTER XXIII
THE REUGIOX OF JULIAN UNI\'ERSAL TOLERATION HE
ATTE3rPTS TO RESTORE AND REFORM THE PAGAN
WORSHIP ; TO REBUILD THE TE3IPLE OF JERUSALEM
HIS ARTFUL PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS
MUTUAL ZEAL AND INJUSTICE
Religion of Julian ....... 486
3.51 His Education and Apostacy ..... 487
He embraces the Mvthology of Paganism . . . 490
The Allegories . " 491
Theological System of Julian ..... 493
Fanaticism of the Philosophers ..... 494
Initiation and Fanaticism of Julian .... 493
His religious Dissimulation ..... 497
He writes against Christianity ..... 499
361 Universal Toleration ....... .500
;361-363 Zeal and Devotion of .Julian in the Restoration
of Paganism 502
Preformation of Paganism ...... 504
The Philosophers ....... .506
Conversions ........ 508
The .Jews ......... 510
Description of .Jerusalem 511
Pilgrimages . . . . . . . . .512
363 .Julian attempts to rebuild the Temple . . 514
xvi CONTENTS
A.D. PAGE
The Enterprise is defeated 516
Perhaps by a preternatural Event .... 517
Partiality of Julian . . . . . . . 518
He prohibits the Christians from teaching Schools . 519
Disgrace and Oppression of the Christians . . 520
They are condemned to restore the Pagan Temples . 521
The Temple and sacred Grove of Daphne . . . 523
Neglect and Profanation of Daphne .... 525
362 Removal of the dead Bodies, and Conflagration of
the Temple 526
Julian shuts the Cathedral of Antioch . . . 527
George of Cappadocia oppresses Alexandria and
Egypt 528
361 He is massacred by the People 530
He is worshipped as a Saint and Martyr . . . 531
362 Restoration of Athanasius 532
He is persecuted and expelled by Juhan . . . 533
361-363 Zeal and Imprudence of the Christians . . 535
CHAPTER XXIV
RESIDEXCE OF JULIAN AT ANTIOCH HIS SUCCESSFUL-
EXPEDITION AGAINST THE PERSIANS PASSAGE OF
THE TIGRIS THE RETREAT AND DEATH OF JULIAN
ELECTION OF JOVIAN HE SAVES THE ROMAN
ARMY BY A DISGRACEFUL TREATY
The Caesars of Julian 538
362 He resolves to march against the Persians . . 539
Julian proceeds from Constantinople to Antioch . 541
Licentious manners of the People of Antioch . 541
Their Aversion to Julian 543
Scarcity of Corn, and public Discontient . . . 543
Julian composes a Satire against Antioch . . . 545
314-390 The Sophist Libanius 546
363 March of Julian to the Euphrates .... 548
His design of invading Persia ..... 549
Disaffection of the King of Armenia .... 550
Military Preparations ...... 551
Julian enters the Persian Territories . , . 552
His March over the Desert of Mesopotamia . . 553
His Success 555
Description of Assyria 556
363 Invasion of Assyria ...,..• 558
i
CONTENTS xvii
A.D. PAGE
Siege of Perisabor 558
Siege of Maogamalcha ...... 559
Personal Beha\'iour of Julian ..... 561
He transports his Fleet from the Euphrates to the
Tigris . . . 564
Passage of the Tigris and Victory of the Romans . 566
Situation and Obstinacy of Julian .... 568
He burns his Fleet . ...... 571
Marches against Sapor ...... 573
Eetreat and Distress of the Roman Army . . 575
Julian is mortally wounded ..... 577
363 Death of Julian 579
Election of the Emperor Jovian .... 581
Danger and Difficulty of the Retreat . . . 584
Negotiation and Treaty of Peace .... 586
The Weakness and Disgrace of Jovian . . , . 588
He continues his Retreat to Xisibis .... 589
Universal Clamour against the Treaty of Peace . 591
Jovian evacuates Xisibis, and restores the five Pro-
vinces to the Persians 592
Reflections on the Death of .Julian .... 594
On his Funeral 596
■
THE HISTORY
OF THE
DECLINE AXD FALL OF THE
EOMAN EMPIRE
CHAPTER XV
THE PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND THE
SENTIJIENTS, MANNERS, NUMBERS, AND CONDITION,
OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS
A CANDID but rational inquiry into the progress and
establishment of Christianity may be considered as a
very essential part of the history of the Roman empire.
While that great body was invaded by open violence,
or undermined by slow decay^ a pure and humble
religion gently insinuated itself into the minds of men^
grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour
from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant
banner of the cross on the ruins of the Capitol. Nor
was the influence of Christianity confined to the period
or to the limits of the Roman empire. After a revolu-
tion of thirteen or fourteen centuries, that religion is
still professed by the nations of Europe, the most
distinguished portion of human kind in arts and
learning as well as in arms. By the industry and
zeal of the Europeans it has been widely diffused to
the most distant shores of Asia and Africa ; and by
the means of their colonies has been firmly established
VOL. II. A
2 THE DECLINE AND FALL
from Canada to Chili, in a world unknown to the
ancients.
But this inquiry, however useful or entertaining, is
attended with two peculiar difficulties. The scanty
and suspicious materials of ecclesiastical history seldom
enable us to dispel the dark cloud that hangs over the
first age of the church. The great law of impartiality
too often obliges us to reveal the imperfections of the
uninspired teachers and believers of the gospel ; and,
to a careless observer, their faults may seem to cast a
shade on the faith which they professed. But the
scandal of the pious Christian, and the fallacious
triumph of the Infidel, should cease as soon as they
recollect not only by whom, but likewise to whom, the
Divine Revelation was given. The theologian may
indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as
she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native
purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the
historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture
of error and corruption which she contracted in a long
residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate
race of beings.
Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by
what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable
a victory over the established religions of the earth.
To this inquiry, an obvious but satisfactory answer
may be returned ; that it was owing to the convincing
evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling provi-
dence of its great Author. But, as truth and reason
seldom find so favourable a reception in the world, and
as the wisdom of Providence frequently condescends
to use the passions of the human heart, and the general
circumstances of mankind, as instruments to execute
its purpose ; we may still be permitted, though with
becoming submission, to ask not indeed what were the
first, but what were the secondary causes of the rapid
growth of the Christian church. It will, perhaps, ap-
pear that it was most effectually favoured and assisted
by the five following causes : I. The inflexible, and, if
we may use the expression, the intolerant zeal of the
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 3
Christians, derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion,
but purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit which,
instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from
embracing the law of Moses. II. The doctrine of a
future life, improved by every additional circumstance
which couid give weight and efficacy to that important
truth. III. The miraculous powers ascribed to the
primitive church. IV. The pure and austere morals
of the Christians. V. The union and discipline of the
Christian republic, which gradually formed an inde-
pendent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman
empire.
I. We have already described the religious harmony
of the ancient world, and the facility with which the
most different and even hostile nations embraced, or
at least respected, each other's superstitions. A single
people refused to join in the common intercourse of
mankind. The Jews, who, under the Assyrian and
Persian monarchies, had languished for many ages the
most despised portion of their slaves, emerged from
obscurity under the successors of Alexander ; and, as
they multiplied to a surprising degree in the East, and
afterwards in the West, they soon excited the curiosity
and wonder of other nations. The sullen obstinacy
with which they maintained their peculiar rites and
unsocial manners seemed to mark them out a distinct
species of men, who boldly professed, or who faintly
disguised, their implacable hatred to the rest of human
kind. Neither the violence of Antiochus, nor the arts
of Herod, nor the example of the circumjacent nations,
could ever persuade the Jews to associate with the
institutions of Moses the elegant mythology of the
Greeks.^ According to the maxims of universal tolera-
tion, the Romans protected a superstition which they
despised. The polite Augustus condescended to give
1 A Jewish sect, which indulged themselves in a sort of occa-
sional conformity, derived from Herod, by whose example and
authority they had been seduced, the name of Herodians. But
their numbers were so inconsiderable, and their duration so
short, that Josephus has not thought them worthy of his notice
4 THE DECLINE AND FALL
orders that sacrifices should be offered for his pros-
perity in the temple of Jerusalem ; ^ while the meanest
of the posterity of Abraham, who should have paid the
same homage to the Jupiter of the Capitol, would have
been an object of abhorrence to himself and to his
brethren. But the moderation of the conquerors was
insufficient to appease the jealous prejudices of their
subjects, who were alarmed and scandalised at the
ensigns of paganism, which necessarily introduced
themselves into a Roman province. The mad attempt
of Caligula to place his own statue in the temple of
Jerusalem was defeated by the unanimous resolution
of a people who dreaded death much less than such an
idolatrous profanation. 3 Their attachment to the law
of Moses was equal to their detestation of foreign
religions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it
was contracted into a narrow channel, ran with the
strength, and sometimes with the fury, of a torrent.
This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so
odious, or so ridiculous, to the ancient world, assumes
a more awful character, since Providence has deigned
to reveal to us the mysterious history of the chosen
people. But the devout, and even scrupulous, attach-
ment to the Mosaic religion, so conspicuous among
the Jews who lived under the second temple, becomes
still more surprising, if it is compared with the stubborn
incredulity of their forefathers. When the law was
given in thunder from Mount Sinai ; when the tides
of the ocean and the course of the planets were sus-
pended for the convenience of the Israelites ; and
when temporal rewards and punishments were the
immediate consequences of their piety or disobedience ;
2 Augustus left a foundation for a perpetual sacrifice. Yet
he approved of the neglect which his grandson Caius expressed
towards the temple of Jerusalem.
3 Philo and Josephus gave a very circumstantial, but a very
rhetorical, account of this transaction, which exceedingly per-
plexed the governor of Syria. At the first mention of this
idolatrous proposal, King Agrippa fainted away ; and did not
recover his senses till the third day.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 6
they perpetually relapsed into rebellion against the
visible majesty of their Divine King, placed the idols
of the nations in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and imi-
tated every fantastic ceremony that was practised in
the tents of the Arabs or in the cities of Phoenicia.* As
the protection of Heaven was deservedly withdrawn
from the ungrateful race, their faith acquired a pro-
portionable degree of vigour and purity. The contem-
poraries of Moses and Joshua had beheld, with careless
indifference, the most amazing miracles. Under the
pressure of every calamity, the belief of those miracles
has preserved the Jews of a later period from the uni-
versal contagion of idolatry ; and, in contradiction to
every known principle of the human mind, that singular
people seems to have yielded a stronger and more
ready assent to the traditions of their remote ancestors
than to the evidence of their own senses.^
The Jewish religion was admirably fitted for defence,
but it was never designed for conquest ; and it seems
probable that the number of proselytes was never
much superior to that of apostates. The divine
promises were originally made, and the distinguishing
rite of circumcision was enjoined, to a single family.
When the posterity of Abraham had multiplied like
the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose mouth
they received a system of laws and ceremonies, de-
clared himself the proper and, as it were, the national
God of Israel ; and, with the most jealous care,
separated his favourite people from the rest of man-
kind. The conquest of the land of Canaan was
accompanied with so many wonderful and with so
many bloody circumstances that the victorious Jews
4 For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabkn deities, it
may be observed that Milton has comprised, in one hundred and
thirty very beautiful lines, the two large and learned syntagmas
which Selden had composed on that abstruse subject.
^ "How long will this people provoke me? and how long
will it be ere they believe, me, for all the signs which I have
shown among them?" (Numbers, xiv. ii). It would be easy,
but it would be unbecoming, to justify the complaint of the
Deity, from the whole tenor of the Mosaic history.
6 THE DECLINE AND FALL
were left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with all
their neighbours. They had been commanded to
extirpate some of the most idolatrous tribes ; and the
execution of the Divine will had seldom been retarded
by the weakness of humanity. With the other nations
they were forbidden to contract any marriages or
alliances ; and the prohibition of receiving them into
the congregation, which^ in some cases^ was perpetual,
almost always extended to the third, to the seventh,
or even to the tenth generation. The obligation of
preaching to the Gentiles the faith of Moses had
never been inculcated as a precept of the law, nor
were the Jews inclined to impose it on themselves as
a voluntary duty. In the admission of new citizens,
that unsocial people was actuated by the selfish vanity
of the Greeks, rather than by the generous policy of
Rome. The descendants of Abraham were flattered
by the opinion that they alone were the heirs of the
covenant ; and they were apprehensive of diminishing
the value of their inheritance, by sharing it too easily
with the strangers of the earth. A larger acquaint-
ance with mankind extended their knowledge without
correcting their prejudices ; and, whenever the God
of Israel acquired any new votaries, he was much
more indebted to the inconstant humour of polytheism
than to the active zeal of his own missionaries. The
religion of Moses seems to be instituted for a particular
country, as well as for a single nation ; and, if a strict
obedience had been paid to the order that every male,
three times in the year, should present himself before
the Lord Jehovah, it would have been impossible that
the Jews could ever have spread themselves beyond
the narrow limits of the promised land. That obstacle
was indeed removed by the destruction of the temple
of Jerusalem ; but the most considerable part of the
Jewish religion was involved in its destruction ; and
the Pagans, who had long wondered at the strange
report of an empty sanctuary, were at a loss to discover
what could be the object, or what could be the
instruments, of a worship which was destitute of
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 7
temples and of altars, of priests and of sacrifices. Yet
even in their fallen state, the Jews, still asserting
their lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned, instead
of courting, the society of strangers. They still in-
^lsted with inflexible rigour on those parts of the
law vrhich it was in their power to practise. Their
peculiar distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety
of trivial though burdensome observances, were so
many objects of disgust and aversion for the other
nations, to whose habits and prejudices they were
diametrically opposite. The painful and even danger-
ous rite of circumcision was alone capable of repelling
a willing proselyte from the door of the synagogue.
Under these circumstances, Christianity offered
itself to the world, armed with the strength of the
Mosaic law, and delivered from the weight of its
fetters. An exclusive zeal for the truth of religion
and the unity of God was as carefully inculcated in
the new as in the ancient system ; and whatever was
now revealed to mankind, concerning the nature and
designs of the Supreme Being, was fitted to increase
their reverence for that mysterious doctrine. The
divine authority of Moses and the prophets was
admitted, and even established, as the firmest basis
of Christianity. From the beginning of the world,
an uninterrupted series of predictions had announced
and prepared the long expected coming of the Messiah,
who, in compliance with the gross apprehensions of
the Jews, had been more frequently represented under
the character of a King and Conqueror, than under
that of a Prophet, a Martyr, and the Son of God.
By his expiatory sacrifice, the imperfect sacrifices of
the temple were at once consummated and abolished.
The ceremonial law, which consisted only of types
and figures, was succeeded by a pure and spiritual
worship, equally adapted to all climates, as well as to
every condition of mankind ; and to the initiation of
blood was substituted a more harmless initiation of
water. The promise of divine favour, instead of being
partially confined to the posterity of Abraham, was
8 THE DECLINE AND FALL
universally proposed to the freeman and the slave^ to
the Greek and to the barbarian, to the Jew and to
the Gentile. Every privilege that could raise the
proselyte from earth to Heaven, that could exalt his
devotion, secure his happiness, or even gratify that
secret pride which, under the semblance of devotion,
insinuates itself into the human heart, was still
reserved for the members of the Christian church ;
but at the same time all mankind was permitted, and
even solicited, to accept the glorious distinction, which
was not only proffered as a favour, but imposed as an
obligation. It became the most sacred duty of a new
convert to diffuse among his friends and relations the
inestimable blessing which he had received, and to
warn them against a refusal that would be severely
punished as a criminal disobedience to the will of a
benevolent but all-powerful deity.
The enfranchisement of the church from the bonds
of the synagogue was a work, however, of some time
and of some difficulty. The Jewish converts, who
acknowledged Jesus in the character of the Messiah
foretold by their ancient oracles, respected him as a
prophetic teacher of virtue and religion;' but they
obstinately adhered to the ceremonies of their ances-
tors, and were desirous of imposing them on the
Gentiles, who continually augmented the number of
believers. These Judaising Christians seem to have
argued with some degree of plausibility from the
divine origin of the Mosaic law, and from the immut-
able perfections of its great Author. They affirmed
that, if the Being, who is the same through all eternity,
had designed to abolish those sacred rites which had
served to distinguish his chosen people, the repeal of
them would have been no less clear and solemn than
their first promulgation : that, instead of those frequent
declarations, which either suppose or assert the per-
petuity of the Mosaic religion, it would have been
represented as a provisionary scheme intended to last
only till the coming of the Messiah, who should instruct
mankind in a more perfect mode of faith and of wor-
OF THE ROMAN EiMPIRE 9
ship : that the Messiah himself, and his disciples who
conversed with him on earth, instead of authorising
by their example the most minute observances of the
Mosaic law, would have published to the world the
abolition of those useless and obsolete ceremonies,
without suffering Christianity to remain during so
many years obscurely confounded among the sects of
the Jewish church. Arguments like these appear to
have been used in the defence of the expiring cause
of the Mosaic law ; but the industry of our learned
divines has abundantly explained the ambiguous lan-
guage of the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct
of the apostolic teachers. It was proper gradually to
unfold the system of the Gospel, and to pronounce,
with the utmost caution and tenderness, a sentence
of condemnation so repugnant to the inclination and
prejudices of the believing Jews.
The history of the church of Jerusalem affords a
lively proof of the necessity of those precautions, and
of the deep impression which the Jewish religion had
made on the minds of its sectaries. The first fifteen
bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews ; and
the congregation over which they presided, united the
law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ. It was
natural that the primitive tradition of a church which
was founded only forty years after the death of Christ,
and was governed almost as many years under the
immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received
as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant churches
very frequently appealed to the authority of their
venerable Parent, and relieved her distresses by a
liberal contribution of alms. But, when numerous
and opulent societies were established in the great
cities of the empire, in Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus,
Corinth, and Rome, the reverence which Jerusalem
had inspired to all the Christian colonies insensibly
diminished. The Jewish converts, or, as they were
afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who had laid the
foundations of the church, soon found themselves
overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes that from
VOL. II. A ')
10 THE DECLINE AND FALL
all the various religions of polytheism inlisted under
the banner of Christ ; and the Gentiles, who with the
approbation of their peculiar apostle had rejected the
intolerable weight of Mosaic ceremonies, at length
refused to their more scrupulous brethren the same
toleration which at first they had humbly solicited for
their own practice. The ruin of the temple, of the
city, and of the public religion of the Jews, was
severely felt by the Nazarenes ; as in their manners,
though not in their faith, they maintained so intimate
a connection with their impious countrymen, whose
misfortunes were attributed by the Pagans to the
contempt, and more justly ascribed by the Christians
to the wrath, of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes
retired from the ruins of Jerusalem to the little town
of Pella beyond the Jordan, where that ancient church
languished above sixty years in solitude and obscurity.^
They still enjoyed the comfort of making frequent and
devout visits to the Holy City, and the hope of being
one day restored to those seats which both nature and
religion taught them to love as well as to revere. But
at length, under the reign of Hadrian, the desperate
fanaticism of the Jews filled up the measure of their
calamities ; and the Romans, exasperated by their
repeated rebellions, exercised the rights of victory
with unusual rigour. The emperor founded, under
the name of ^lia Capitolina, a new city on Mount
Sion,7 to which he gave the privileges of a colony ;
and, denouncing the severest penalties against any of
the Jewish people who should dare to approach its
precincts, he fixed a vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort
to enforce the execution of his orders. The Nazarenes
s During this occasional absence, the bishop and church of
Pella still retained the title of Jerusalem. In the same manner,
the Roman pontiffs resided seventy years at Avignon ; and the
patriarchs of Alexandria have long since transferred their epis-
copal seat to Cairo.
'' The exile of the Jewish nation from Jerusalem is attested
by Aristo of Pella (apud Euseb. 1. iv. c. 6), and is mentioned by
several ecclesiastical vi^riters ; though some of them too hastily
extend this interdiction to the whole country of Palestine.
OF THE ROMAN EiMPIRE 11
had only one way left to escape the common proscrip-
tion, and the force of truth was, on this occasion,
assisted by the influence of temporal advantages. They
elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race
of the Gentiles, and most probably a native either of
Italy or of some of the Latin provinces. At his per-
suasion, the most considerable part of the congregation
renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice of which
they had persevered above a century. By this sacrifice
of their habits and prejudices they purchased a free
admission into the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly
cemented their union with the Catholic church.
WTien the name and honours of the church of
Jerusalem had been restored to Mount Sion, the
crimes of heresy and schism were imputed to the
obscure remnant of the Nazarenes which refused to
accompany their Latin bishop. They still preserved
their former habitation of Pella, spread themselves
into the villages adjacent to Damascus, and formed
an inconsiderable church in the city of Bercea, or, as
it is now called, of Aleppo, in Syria. ^ The name of
Nazarenes was deemed too honourable for those
Christian Jews, and they soon received from the
supposed poverty of their understanding, as well as
of their condition, the contemptuous epithet of
Ebionites.^ In a few years after the return of the
church of Jerusalem, it became a matter of doubt and
controversy whether a man who sincerely acknow-
ledged Jesus as the Messiah, but who still continued
to observe the law of Moses, could possibly hope for
' Le Clerc (Hist. Ecclesiast. pp. 477, 535) seems to have col-
lected from Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, and other writers,
all the principal circumstances that relate to the Nazarenes, or
Ebionites. The nature of their opinions soon divided them
into a stricter and a milder sect ; and there is some reason to
conjecture that the family of Jesus Christ remained members,
at least, of the latter and more moderate party.
9 Some writers have been pleased to create an Ebion, the
Imaginary author of their sect and name. But we can more
safely rely on the learned Eusebius than on the vehement
Tertullian or the credulous Epiphaniias.
12 THE DECLINE AND FALL
salvation. The humane temper of Justin Martyr in-
clined him to answer this question in the affirmative ;
and, though he expressed himself with the most
guarded diffidence, he ventured to determine in favour
of such an imperfect Christian, if he were content to
practise the Mosaic ceremonies, without pretending
to assert their general use or necessity. But, when
Justin was pressed to declare the sentiment of the
church, he confessed that there were very many
among the orthodox Christians, who not only ex-
cluded their Judaising brethren from the hope of
salvation, hut who declined any intercourse with them
in the common offices of friendship, hospitality, and
social life. The more rigorous opinion prevailed, as
it was natural to expect, over the milder ; and an
external bar of separation was fixed between the
disciples of Moses and those of Christ. The unfor-
tunate Ebionites, rejected from one religion as
apostates, and from the other as heretics, found them-
selves compelled to assume a more decided character ;
and, although some traces of that obsolete sect may
be discovered as late as the fourth century, they
insensibly melted away either into the church or the
synagogue.^*'
While the orthodox church preserved a just medium
between excessive veneration and improper contempt
for the law of Moses, the various heretics deviated into
equal but opposite extremes of error and extravagance.
From the acknowledged truth of the Jewish religion
the Ebionites had concluded that it could never be
10 Of all the systems of Christianity, that of Abyssinia is the
only one which still adheres to the Mosaic rites. The eunuch
of the queen Candace might suggest some suspicions ; but, as
we are assured that the Ethiopians were not converted till the
fourth century, it is more reasonable to believe that they re-
spected the Sabbath, and distinguished the forbidden meats, in
imitation of the Jews, who, in a very early period, were seated
on both sides of the Red Sea. Circumcision had been prac-
tised by the most ancient .Ethiopians, from motives of health
and cleanliness, which seem to be explained in the Recherches
Philosophiques sur les Am^ricains, tom. ii. p. 117.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 18
abolished. From its supposed imperfections the Gnos-
tics as hastily inferred that it never was instituted by
the wisdom of the Deity. There are some objections
against the authority of Moses and the prophets, which
too readily present themselves to the sceptical mind ;
though they can only be derived from our ignorance
of remote antiquity, and from our incapacity to form
an adequate judgment of the divine oeconomy. These
objections were eagerly embraced, and as petulantly
urged, by the vain science of the Gnostics. As those
heretics were, for the most part, averse to the pleasures
of sense, they morosely arraigned the polygamy of the
patriarchs, the gallantries of David, and the seraglio
of Solomon. The conquest of the land of Canaan, and
the extirpation of the unsuspecting natives, they were
at a loss how to reconcile with the common notions of
humanity and justice. But, when they recollected the
sanguinary list of murders, of executions, and of massa-
cres, which stain almost every page of the Jewish annals,
they ackno^'ledged that the barbarians of Palestine
had exercised as much compassion towards their idola-
trous enemies as they had ever shown to their friends
or countrymen. Passing from the sectaries of the law
to the law itself, they asserted that it was impossible
that a religion which consisted only of bloody sacrifices
and trifling ceremonies, and whose rewards as well as
punishments were all of a carnal and temporal nature,
could inspire the love of virtue, or restrain that im-
petuosity of passion. The Mosaic account of the crea-
tion and' fall of man wai treated with profane derision
by the Gnostics, who would not listen with patience to
the repose of the Deity after six days' labour, to the
rib of Adam, the garden of Eden, the trees of life and
of knowledge, the speaking serpent, the forbidden
fruit, and the condemnation pronounced against human
kind for the venial offence of their first progenitors.
The God of Israel was impiously represented by the
Gnostics as a being liable to passion and to error,
capricious in his favour, implacable in his resentment,
meanly jealous of his superstitious worship, and con-
14 THE DECLINE AND FALL
fining his partial providence to a single people and to
this transitory life. In such a character they could
discover none of the features of the wise and omnipo-
tent father of the universe. ^^ They allowed that the
religion of the Jews was somewhat less criminal than
the idolatry of the Gentiles ; but it was their funda-
mental doctrine that the Christ whom they adored as
the first and brightest emanation of the Deity appeared
upon earth to rescue mankind from their various errors,
and to reveal a new system of truth and perfection.
The most learned of the fathers, by a very singular
condescension, have imprudently admitted the sophistry
of the Gnostics. Acknowledging that the literal sense
is repugnant to every principle of faith as well as
reason, they deem themselves secure and invulnerable
behind the ample veil of allegory, which they carefully
spread over every tender part of the Mosaic dispen-
sation.
It has been remarked, with more ingenuity than
truth, that the virgin purity of the church was never
violated by schism or heresy before the reign of Trajan
or Hadrian, about one hundred years after the death
of Christ. We may observe, with much more pro-
priety, that, during that period, the disciples of the
Messiah were indulged in a freer latitude both of faith
and practice than has ever been allowed in succeeding
ages. As the terms of communion were insensibly
narrowed, and the spiritual authority of the prevailing
party was exercised with increasing severity, many of
its most respectable adherents, who were called upon
to renounce, were provoked to assert, their private
opinions, to pursue the consequences of their mistaken
principles, and openly to erect the standard of rebellion
against the unity of the church. The Gnostics were
11 The milder Gnostics considered Jehovah, the Creator, as a
Being of a mixed nature between God and the Daemon. Others
confounded him with the evil principle. Consult the second
century of the general history of Mosheim, which gives a very
distinct, though concise, account of their strange opinions on
this subject
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 15
distingTiished as the most polite, the most learned, and
the most wealthy of the Christian name^ and that
g-eneral appellation which expressed a superiority of
knowledge was either assumed by their own pride or
ironically bestowed by the envy of their adversaries.
They were almost without exception of the race of the
Gentiles, and their principal founders seem to have
been natives of Syria or Egypt, where the warmth of
the climate disposes both the mind and the body to
indolent and contemplative devotion. The Gnostics
blended with the faith of Christ many sublime but
obscure tenets which they derived from oriental philo-
sophy, and even from the religion of Zoroaster, con-
cerning the eternity of matter, the existence of two
principles, and the mysterious hierarchy of the invisible
world. As soon as they launched out into that vast
abyss, they delivered themselves to the guidance of a
disordered imagination ; and, as the paths of error are
various and infinite, the Gnostics were imperceptibly
divided into more than fifty particular sects, of whom
the most celebrated appear to have been the Basilidians,
the Valentinians, the Marcionites, and, in a still later
period, the Manichasans. Each of these sects could
boast of its bishops and congregations, of its doctors
and martyrs, and, instead of the four gospels adopted
by the church, the heretics produced a multitude of
histories, in which the actions and discourses of Christ
and of his apostles were adapted to their respective
tenets.12 xhe success of the Gnostics was rapid and
extensive. They covered Asia and Egypt, established
12 See a very remarkable passage of Origen (Proem, ad
Lucam). That indefatigable writer, who had consumed his
life in the study of the scriptures, relies for their authenticity on
the inspired authority of the church. It was impossible that
the Gnostics could receive our present gospels, many parts of
which (particularly in the resurrection of Christ) are directly,
and as it might seem designedly, pointed against their favourite
tenets. It is therefore somewhat singular that Ignatius (Epist.
ad Smyrn. Patr. Apostol. tom. ii. p. 34) should choose to em-
ploy a vague and doubtful tradition, instead of quoting the
certain testimony of the evangelists.
16 THE DECLINE AND FALL
themselves in Rome, and sometimes penetrated into
tlie provinces of the West. For the most part they
arose in the second century, flourished during the
third, and were suppressed in the fourth or fifth, by
the prevalence of more fashionable controversies, and
by the superior ascendant of the reigning power.
Though they constantly disturbed the peace, and fre-
quently disgraced the name, of religion, they contri-
buted to assist rather than to retard the progress of
Christianity. The Gentile converts, whose strongest
objections and prejudices were directed against the
law of Moses, could find admission into many Christian
societies, which required not from their untutored
mind any belief of an antecedent revelation. Their
faith was insensibly fortified and enlarged, and the
church was ultimately benefited by the conquests of
its most inveterate enemies. ^^
But, whatever diff'erence of opinion might subsist
between the Orthodox, the Ebionites, and the
Gnostics, concerning the divinity or the obligation of
the Mosaic law, they were all equally animated by the
same exclusive zeal and by the same abhorrence for
idolatry which had distinguished the Jews from the
other nations of the ancient world. The philosopher,
who considered the system of polytheism as a com-
position of human fraud and error, could disguise a
smile of contempt under the mask of devotion, without
apprehending that either the mockery or the com-
pliance would expose him to the resentment of any
invisible, or, as he conceived them, imaginary powers.
But the established religions of Paganism were seen
by the primitive Christians in a much more odious and
formidable light. It was the universal sentiment both
of the church and of heretics that the daemons were
the authors, the patrons, and the objects of idolatry.
Tliose rebellious spirits who had been degraded from
the rank of angels, and cast down into the in-
13 Augustin is a memorable instance of this gradual progress
from reason to faith. He was, during several years, engaged
in the Manichasan sect.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 17
fernal pit, were still permitted to roam upon earth, to
torment the bodies, and to seduce the minds, of sinful
men. The daemons soon discovered and abused the
natural propensity of the human heart towards de-
votion, and, artfully withdrawing the adoration of
mankind from their Creator, they usurped the place
and honours of the Supreme Deity. By the success of
their malicious contrivances, they at once gratified
their own vanity and revenge, and obtained the only
comfort of which they were yet susceptible, the hope
of involving the human species in the participation of
their guilt and misery. It was confessed, or at least it
was imagined, that they had distributed among them-
selves the most important characters of pol\i;heism,
one dasmon assuming the name and attributes of
Jupiter, another of iEsculapius, a third of Venus, and
a fourth perhaps of Apollo ; ^^ and that, by the advantage
of their long experience and aerial nature, they were
enabled to execute, with sufficient skill and dignity,
the parts which they had undertaken. They lurked
in the temples, instituted festivals and sacrifices,
invented fables, pronounced oracles, and were fre-
quently allowed to perform miracles. The Christians,
who, by the interposition of evil spirits, could so
readily explain every praeternatural appearance, were
disposed and even desirous to admit the most extrava-
gant fictions of the Pagan mythology. But the belief
of the Christian was accompanied with horror. The
most trifling mark of respect to the national worship he
considered as a direct homage yielded to the daemon,
and as an act of rebellion against the majesty of God.
In consequence of this opinion, it was the first but
arduous duty of a Christian to preserve himself pure
and undefiled by the practice of idolatry. The religion
of the nations was not merely a speculative doctrine
professed in the schools or preached in the temples.
The innumerable deities and rites of polytheism were
1* TertuUian (Apolog. c. 23) alleges the confession of the
Daemons themselves as often as they were tormented by the
Christian exorcists.
18 THE DECLINE AND FALL
closely interwoven with every circumstance of business
or pleasure, of public or of private life ; and it seemed
impossible to escape the observance of them_, without,
at the same time, renouncing the commerce of man-
kind and all the offices and amusements of society.^^
The important transactions of peace and war were
prepared or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which
the magistrate, the senator, and the soldier were
obliged to preside or to participate.^^ The public
spectacles were an essential part of the cheerful de-
votion of the Pagans, and the gods were supposed to
accept, as the most grateful offering, the games that
the prince and people celebrated in honour of their
peculiar festivals.^^ The Christian, who with pious
horror avoided the abomination of the circus or the
theatre, found himself encompassed with infernal
snares in every convivial entertainment, as often as his
friends, invoking the hospitable deities, poured out
libations to each other^s happiness.^* When the bride,
struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced
in hjinenaeal pomp over the thresliold of her new
habitation, or when the sad procession of the dead
slowly moved towards the funeral pile ; ^^ the Christian,
ifi TertuUian has written a most severe treatise against idolatry,
to caution his brethren against the hourly danger of incurring
that guilt. Recogita silvam, et quantae latitant spinae. De
Coron^ Militis, c. lo.
18 The Roman senate was always held in a temple or conse-
crated place. Before they entered on business, every senator
dropped some wine and frankincense on the altar.
i' See TertuUian, De Spectaculis. This severe reformer shows
no more indulgence to a tragedy of Euripides than to a combat
of gladiators. The dress of the actors particularly offends him.
By the use of the lofty buskin, they impiously strive to add a
cubit to their stature, c. 23.
18 The ancient practice of concluding the entertainment with
libations may be found in every classic.
19 The ancient funerals (in those of Misenus and Pallas) are
no less accurately described by Virgil than they are illustrated
by his commentator Servius. The pile itself was an altar, the
flames were fed with the blood of victims, and all the assistants
were sprinkled with lustral water;
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 19
on these interesting' occasions, was compelled to desert
the persons who were the dearest to him, rather than
contract the guilt inherent to those impious cere-
monies. Every art and every trade that was in the
least concerned in the framing or adorning of idols
was polluted by a stain of idolatry ; a severe sentence,
since it devoted to eternal misery the far greater part
of the community, which is employed in the exercise
of liberal or mechanic professions. If we cast our
eyes over the numerous remains of antiquity, we shall
perceive that, besides the immediate representations of
the Gods and the holy instruments of their worship,
the elegant forms and agreeable fictions, consecrated
by the imagination of the Greeks, were introduced as
the richest ornaments of the houses, the dress, and
the furniture, of the Pagans. Even the arts of music
and painting, of eloquence and poetry, flowed from the
same impure origin. In the style of the fathers,
Apollo and the Muses were the organs of the infernal
spirit. Homer and Virgil were the most eminent of his
servants, and the beautiful mythology which pervades
and animates the compositions of their genius is
destined to celebrate the glory of the daemons. Even
the common language of Greece and Rome abounded
with familiar but impious expressions, which the im-
prudent Christian might too carelessly utter, or too
patiently hear.^o
The dangerous temptations which on every side
lurked in ambush to surprise the unguarded believer
assailed him with redoubled violence on the days of
solemn festivals. So artfully were they framed and
disposed throughout the year that superstitution always
wore the appearance of pleasure, and often of virtue, ^^
90 If a Pagan friend (on the occasion perhaps of sneezing) used
the familiar expression of "Jupiter bless you," the Christian
was obliged to protest against the divinity of Jupiter.
21 Consult the most laboured work of Ovid, his imperfect
Fasti. He finished no more than the first six months of the
year. The compilation of Macrobius is called the Saturnalia,
but it is only a small part of the first book that bears any rela-
tion to the title.
20 THE D£CLIx\E AND FALL
Some of the most sacred festivals in the Roman ritual
were destined to salute the new calends of January
with vows of public and private felicity, to indulge the
pious remembrance of the dead and living, to ascertain
the inviolable bounds of property, to hail, on the
return of spring, the genial powers of fecundity, to
perpetuate the two memorable aeras of Rome, the
foundation of the city and that of the republic, and to
restore, during the humane license of the Saturnalia,
the primitive equality of mankind. Some idea may be
conceived of the abhorrence of the Christians for such
impious ceremonies, by the scrupulous delicacy which
they displayed on a much less alarming occasion. On
days of general festivity, it was the custom of the
ancients to adorn their doors with lamps and with
branches of laurel, and to crown their heads with a
garland of flowers. Tliis innocent and elegant practice
might, perhaps, have been tolerated as a mere civil
institution. But it most unluckily happened that the
doors were under the protection of the household gods,
that the laurel was sacred to the lover of Daphne, and
that garlands of flowers, though frequently worn as
a symbol either of joy or mourning, had been dedi-
cated in their first origin to the service of superstition.
The trembling Christians, who were persuaded in this
instance to comply with the fashion of their country
and the commands of the magistrate, laboured under
the most gloomy apprehensions, from the reproaches
of their own conscience, the censures of the church,
and the denunciations of divine vengeance. ^^
Such was the anxious diligence which was required
to guard the chastity of the gospel from the infectious
breath of idolatry. The superstitious observances of
22 TertuUian has composed a defence, or rather panegyric, of
the rash action of a Christian soldier who, by throwing away
his crown of laurel, had exposed himself and his brethren to
the most imminent danger. By the mention of the emperors
(Severus and Caracalla) it is evident, notwithstanding the wishes
of M. de Tillemont, that TertuUian composed his treatise De
Coroni long before he was engaged in the errors of the
Montanists.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 21
public or private rites were carelessly practised^, from
education and habit^ by the followers of the established
religion. But^ as often as they occurred, they afforded
the Christians an opportunity of declaring and con-
firming their zealous opposition. By these frequent
protestations, tlieir attachment to the faith was con-
tinually fortified, and, in proportion to the increase of
zeal, they combated with the more ardour and success
in the holy war which they had undertaken against
the empire of the daemons.
II. The writings of Cicero ^ represent, in the most
lively colours, the ignorance, the errors, and the un-
certainty of the ancient philosophers, with regard to
the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous
of arming their disciples against the fear of death,
they inculcate, as an obvious though melancholy posi-
tion, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases
us from the calamities of life, and that those can no
longer suffer who no longer exist. Yet there were a
few sages of Greece and Rome who had conceived a
more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea of
human nature ; though it must be confessed that, in
the sublime inquiry, their reason had been often guided
by their imagination, and that their imagination had
been prompted by their vanity. When they viewed
with complacency the extent of their own mental
powers, when they exercised the various faculties of
memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most pro-
found speculations, or the most important labours, and
when they reflected on the desire of fame, which trans-
ported them into future ages far beyond the bounds
of death and of the grave ; they were unwilling to
confound themselves with the beasts of the field, or
to suppose that a being, for whose dignity they enter-
tained the most sincere admiration, could be limited
23 In particular, the first book of the Tusculan Questions, and
the treatise De Senectute, and the Somnium Scipionis contain,
in the most beautiful language, everything that Grecian philo-
sophy, or Roman good sense, could possibly suggest on this
dark but important object.
22 THE DECLINE AND FALL
to a spot of earth and to a few years of duration.
With this favourable prepossession, they summoned
to their aid the science, or rather the language, of
Metaphysics. They soon discovered that, as none of
the properties of matter will apply to the operations
of the mind, the human soul must consequently be
a substance distinct from the body, pure, simple, and
spiritual, incapable of dissolution, and susceptible of
a much higher degree of virtue and happiness after
the release from its corporeal prison. From these
spacious and noble principles, the philosophers who
trod in the footsteps of Plato deduced a very unjusti-
fiable conclusion, since they asserted, not only the
future immortality, but the past eternity of the human
soul, which they were too apt to consider as a portion
of the infinite and self-existing spirit which pervades
and sustains the universe. 2* A doctrine thus removed
beyond the senses and the experience of mankind
might serve to amuse the leisure of a philosophic
mind ; or, in the silence of solitude, it might some-
times impart a ray of comfort to desponding virtue ;
but the faint impression which had been received in
the schools was soon obliterated by the commerce and
business of active life. We are sufficiently acquainted
with the eminent persons who flourished in the age
of Cicero, and of the first Caesars, with their actions,
their characters, and their motives, to be assured that
their conduct in this life was never regulated by any
serious conviction of the rewards or punishments of a
future state. At the bar and in the senate of Rome
the ablest orators were not apprehensive of giving
offence to their hearers by exposing that doctrine as
an idle and extravagant opinion, which was rejected
with contempt by every man of a liberal education and
understanding.
Since, therefore, the most sublime efforts of philo-
sophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out
24 The pre-existence of human souls, so far at least as that
doctrine is compatible with religion, was adopted by many of
the Greek and Latin fathers.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 23
the desire, the hope, or at most the probability, of a
future state, there is nothing-, except a divine revela-
tion, that can ascertain the existence, and describe the
condition, of the invisible country which is destined to
receive the souls of men after their separation from
the body. But we may perceive several defects in-
herent to the popular religions of Greece and Rome,
which rendered them very unequal to so arduous a
task. 1. The general system of their mythology was
unsupported by any solid proofs ; and the wisest among
the Pagans had already disclaimed its usurped authority.
2. The description of the infernal regions had been
abandoned to the fancy of painters and of poets, who
peopled them with so many phantoms and monsters,
who dispensed their rewards and punishments with so
little equity, that a solemn truth, the most congenial
to the human heart, was oppressed and disgraced by
the absurd mixture of the wildest fictions.^° 3. The
doctrine of a future state was scarcely considered
among the devout pohiiheists of Greece and Rome as
a fundamental article of faith. The providence of the
gods, as it related to public communities rather than
to private individuals, was principally displayed on
the visible theatre of the present world. The petitions
which were offered on the altars of Jupiter or Apollo
expressed the anxiety of their worshippers for temporal
happiness, and their ignorance or indifference con-
cerning a future life. The important truth of the
immortality of the soul was inculcated with more
diligence as well as success in India, in Assyria, in
Egypt, and in Gaul ; and, since we cannot attribute
such a difference to the superior knowledge of the
barbarians, we must ascribe it to the influence of an
established priesthood, which employed the motives of
virtue as the instrument of ambition.
25 The xith book of the Odyssey gives a very dreary and
incoherent account of the infernal shades. Pindar and Virgil
have embellished the picture ; but even those poets, though
more correct than their great model, are guilty of very strange
inconsistencies.
24 THE DECLINE AND FALL
We might naturally expect that a principle, so
essential to religion, would have been revealed in the
clearest terms to the chosen people of Palestine, and
that it might safely have been intrusted to the heredi-
tary priesthood of Aaron. It is incumbent on us to
adore the mysterious dispensations of Provideuce,^^
when we discover that the doctrine of the immortality
of the soul is omitted in the law of Moses ; it is darkly
insinuated by the prophets, and during the long period
which elapsed between the Egyptian and the Babylonian
servitudes, the hopes as well as fears of the Jews appear
to have been confined within the narrow compass of
the present life. After Cyrus had permitted the exiled
nation to return into the promised land, and after Ezra
had restored the ancient records of their religion, two
celebrated sects, the Sadducees and the Pharisees,
insensibly arose at Jerusalem.^*" The former, selected
from the more opulent and distinguished ranks of
society, were strictly attached to the literal sense of the
Mosaic law, and they piously rejected the immortality
of the soul, as an opinion that received no countenance
from the Divine book, which they revered as the only
rule of their faith. To the authority of scripture the
Pharisees added that of tradition, and they accepted,
under the name of traditions, several speculative tenets
from the philosophy or religion of the eastern nations.
The doctrines of fate or predestination, of angels and
spirits, and of a future state of rewards and punish-
ments, were in the number of these new articles of
belief ; and, as the Pharisees, by the austerity of their
manners, had drawn into their party the body of the
Jewish people, the immortality of the soul became the
26 The right reverend author of the Divine Legation of Moses
assigns a very curious reason for the omission, and most in-
geniously retorts it on the unbelievers.
27 Joseph. Antiquitat. 1. xiii. c. lo. De Bell. Jud. ii. 8.
According to the most natural interpretation of his words, the
Sadducees admitted only the Pentateuch ; but it has pleased
some modern critics to add the prophets to their creed, and to
suppose that they contented themselves with rejecting the tradi-
tions of the Pharisees.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 26
prevailing sentiment of the synagogue, under the reign
of the Asmonaean princes and pontiffs. The temper of
the Jews was incapable of contenting itself with such
a cold and languid assent as might satisfy the mind of
a Polytheist ; and^ as soon as they admitted the idea
of a future state, they embraced it with the zeal which
has always formed the characteristic of the nation.
Their zeal, however, added nothing to its evidence, or
even probability : and it was still necessary that the
doctrine of life and immortality, which had been
dictated by nature, approved by reason, and received
by superstition, should obtain the sanction of Divine
truth from the authority and example of Christ.
MTien the promise of eternal happiness was proposed
to mankind, on condition of adopting the faith and of
observing the precepts of the gospel, it is no wonder
that so advantageous an offer should have been ac-
cepted by great numbers of every religion, of every
rank, and of every province in the Roman empire.
The ancient Christians were animated by a contempt
for their present existence, and by a just confidence of
immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect faith
of modern ages cannot give us any adequate notion.
In the primitive church, the influence of truth was
very powerfully strengthened by an opinion which,
however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and
antiquity, has not been found agreeable to experience.
It was universally believed that the end of the world
and the kingdom of Heaven were at hand. The near
approach of this wonderful event had been predicted
by the apostles ; the tradition of it was preserved by
their earliest disciples, and those who understood in
their literal sense the discourses of Christ himself were
obliged to expect the second and glorious coming of
the Son of Man in the clouds, before that generation
was totally extinguished, which had beheld his humble
condition upon earth, and which might still be witness
of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or
Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has
instructed us not to press too closely the mysterious
26 THE DECLINE AND FALL
languag'e of prophecy and revelation ; but^ as long as,
for wise purposes^ this error was permitted to subsist
in the church, it was productive of the most salutary
effects on the faith and practice of Christians_, who
lived in the awful expectation of that moment when
the globe itself. Sand all the various race of man-
kind, should tremble at the appearance of their divine
judge.28
The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium
was intimately connected with the second coming of
Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished
in six days, their duration in their present state, ac-
cording to a tradition which was attributed to the
prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years.^ By
the same analogy it was inferred that this long period
of labour and contention, which was now almost
elapsed, ^° would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a
thousand years ; and that Christ, with the triumphant
band of the saints and the elect who had escaped
death, or who had been miraculously revived, would
reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last
and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope
28 This expectation was countenanced by the twenty-fourth
chapter of St. Matthew, and by the first epistle of St. Paul to
the Thessalonians. Erasmus removes the difficulty by the help
of allegory and metaphor ; and the learned Grotius ventures to
insinuate that, for wise purposes, the pious deception was per-
mitted to take place.
2» This tradition may be traced as high as the author of the
Epistle of Barnabas, who wrote in the first century, and who
seems to have been half a Jew.
80 The primitive church of Antioch computed almost 6ooo
years from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ,
Africanus, Lactantius, and the Greek church, have reduced that
number to 5500, and Eusebius has contented himself with 5200
years. These calculations were formed on the Septuagint,
which was universally received during the first six centuries.
The authority of the Vulgate and of the Hebrew text has
determined the moderns, Protestants as well as Catholics, to
prefer a period of about 4000 years ; though, in the study of
profane antiquity, they often find themselves straitened by those
narrow limits.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 27
to the mind of believers that the New Jerusalem, the
seat of this blissful king-dom, was quickly adorned with
all the gayest colours of the imagination. A felicity
consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would
have appeared too refined for its inhabitants, who were
still supposed to possess their human nature and
senses. A garden of Eden, with the amusements of
the pastoral life, was no longer suited to the advanced
state of society which prevailed under the Roman
empire. A city was therefore erected of gold and
precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn
and wine was bestowed on the adjacent territority ;
in the free enjoyment of whose spontaneous produc-
tions the happy and benevolent people was never to be
restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive property.^^
The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully in-
culcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr
and Irenaeus, who conversed with the immediate dis-
ciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was
preceptor to the son of Constantine.^^ Though it
might not be universally received, it appears to have
been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers ;
and it seems so well adapted to the desires and appre-
hensions of mankind that it must have contributed, in
a very considerable degree, to the progress of the
Christian faith. But, when the edifice of the church
was almost completed, the temporary support was laid
aside. The doctrine of Christ^s reign upon earth was
at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered
by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was
1 Most of these pictures were borrowed from a misinterpreta-
tion of Isaiah, Daniel, and the Apocalypse. One of the grossest
images may be found in Irenseus, the disciple of Papias, who
had seen the apostle St. John.
32 The testimony of Justin, of his own faith and that of his
orthodox brethren, in the doctrine of a Millennium, is delivered
in the clearest and most solemn manner (Dialog, cum. Try-
phonte Jud. pp. 177, 178, edit. Benedictin). If in the beginning
of this important passage there is anything like an inconsistency,
we may impute it, as we think proper, either to the author or to
his transcribers.
28 THE DECLINE AND FALL
at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy
and fanaticism. A mysterious prophecy, which still
forms a part of the sacred canon, but which was
thought to favour the exploded sentiment, has very
narrowly escaped the proscription of the church.^
Whilst the happiness and glory of a temporal reign
were promised to the disciples of Christ, the most
dreadful calamities were denounced against an unbe-
lieving world. The edification of the new Jerusalem
"^as to advance by equal steps with the destruction of
the mystic Babylon ; and, as long as the emperors
who reigned before Constantine persisted in the pro-
fession of idolatry, the epithet of Babylon was applied
to the city and to the empire of Rome. A regular
series was prepared of all the moral and physical evils
which can afflict a flourishing nation ; intestine dis-
cord, and the invasion of the fiercest barbarians from
the unknown regions of the North ; pestilence and
famine, comets and eclipses, earthquakes and inunda-
tions. All these were only so many preparatory and
alarming signs of the great catastrophe of Rome, when
the country of the Scipios and Caesars should be con-
sumed by a flame from Heaven, and the city of the
33 In the Council of Laodicea (about the year 360) the
Apocalypse was'tacitly excluded from the sacred canon, by the
same churches of Asia to which it is addressed ; and we may
learn from the complaint of Sulpicius Severus that their sentence
had been ratified by the greater number of Christians of his
time. From what causes, then, is the Apocalypse at present
so generally received by the Greek, the Roman, and the Pro-
testant churches ? The following ones may be assigned, i. The
Greeks were subdued by the authority of an impostor who, in
the sixth century, assumed the character of Dionysius the
Areopagite, 2. A just apprehension, that the grammarians
might become more important than the theologians, engaged
the Council of Trent to fix the seal of their infallibility on all
the books of Scripture, contained in the Latin Vulgate, in the
number of which the Apocalypse was fortunately included.
3. The advantage of turning those mysterious prophecies
against the See of Rome inspired the Protestav.ts with un-
common veneration for so useful an ally. See the ingenious
and elegant discourses of the present bishop of Lichfield on
that unpromising subject.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 29
seven hills^ with her palaces, her temples, and her
triumphal arches, should be buried in a vast lake of
fire and brimstone. It might, however, afford some
consolation to Roman vanity, that the period of their
empire would be that of the world itself ; which, as it
had once perished by the element of water, was destined
to experience a second and a speedy destruction from
the element of fire. In the opinion of a general con-
flagration, the faith of the Christian very happily-
coincided with the tradition of the East, the philosophy
of the Stoics, and the analogy of Nature ; and even
the country which, from religious motives, had been
chosen for the origin and principal scene of the con-
flagration, was the best adapted for that purpose by
natural and physical causes ; by its deep caverns, beds
of sulphur, and numerous volcanoes, of which those
of -lEtna, of Vesuvius, and of Lipari, exhibit a very
imperfect representation. The calmest and most in-
trepid sceptic could not refuse to acknowledge that the
destruction of the present system of the world by fire
was in itself extremely probable. The Christian, who
founded his belief much less on the fallacious argu-
ments of reason than on the authority of tradition and
the interpretation of scripture, expected it with terror
and confidence, as a certain and approaching event ;
and, as his mind was perpetually filled with the solemn
idea, he considered every disaster that happened to the
empire as an infallible symptom of an expiring world.^"^
The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous
of the Pagans, on account of their ignorance or dis-
belief of the divine truth, seems to offend the reason
and the humanity of the present age.^ But the primi-
54 On this subject every reader of taste will be entertained
with the third part of Burnet's Sacred Theory, He blends philo-
sophy, scripture, and tradition, into one magnificent system ; in
the description of which he displays a strength of fancy not in-
ferior to that of Milton himself.
35 And yet, whatever may be the language of individuals, it
is still the public doctrine of all the Christian churches ; nor
can even our ov/n refuse to admit the conclusions which must
be drawn from the viiith and the xviiith of her Articles. The
30 THE DECLINE AND FALL
tive church, whose faith was of a much firmer con-
sistence, delivered over, without hesitation, to eternal
torture the far greater part of the human species. A
charitable hope might perhaps be indulged in favour
of Socrates, or some other sages of antiquity, who had
consulted the light of reason before that of the gospel
had arisen. ^^ But it was unanimously affirmed that
those who, since the birth or the death of Christ, had
obstinately persisted in the worship of the daemons,
neither deserved, nor could expect, a pardon from the
irritated justice of the Deity, These rigid sentiments,
which had been unknown to the ancient world, appear
to have infused a spirit of bitterness into a system of
love and harmony. The ties of blood and fi'iendship
were frequently torn asunder by the difference of
religious faith ; and the Christians, who, in this world,
found themselves oppressed by the power of the Pagans,
were sometimes seduced by resentment and spiritual
pride to delight in the prospect of their future triumph.
''You are fond of spectacles," exclaims the stern Ter-
tuUian ; " expect the greatest of all spectacles, the last
and eternal judgment of the universe. How shall I
admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I
behold so many proud monarchs, and fancied gods,
groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness ; so many
magistrates, who persecuted the name of the Lord,
liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against
the Christians ; so many sage philosophers blushing in
red hot flames, with their deluded scholars ; so many
celebrated poets trembling before the tribunal, not of
Jansenists, who have so diligently studied the works of the
fathers, maintain this sentiment with distinguished zeal ; and
the learned M. de Tillemont never dismisses a virtuous emperor
without pronouncing his damnation. Zuinglius is perhaps the
only leader of a party who has ever adopted the milder senti-
ment, and he gave no less offence to the Lutherans than to the
Catholics.
3« Justin and Clemens of Alexandria allow that some of the
philosophers were instructed by the Logos ; confounding its
double signification of the human reason and of the Divine
Word.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 31
Minos, but of Christ ; so many tragedians, more tune-
ful in the expression of their own sufferings ; so many
dancers !" But the humanity of the reader will
permit me to draw a veil over the rest of this infernal
description, which the zealous African pursues in a
long variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms. 2"
Doubtless there were many among the primitive
Christians of a temper more suitable to the meekness
and charity of their profession. There were many who
felt a sincere compassion for the danger of their friends
and countrymen, and who exerted the most benevolent
zeal to save them from the impending destruction.
The careless Polytheist, assailed by new and unex-
pected terrors, against which neither his priests nor
his philosophers could afford him any certain protec-
tion, was very frequently terrified and subdued by the
menace of eternal tortures. His fears might assist the
progress of his faith and reason ; and, if he could once
persuade himself to suspect that the Christian religion
might possibly be true, it became an easy task to con-
vince him that it was the safest and most prudent
party that he could possibly embrace.
HI. The supernatural gifts, which even in this life
were ascribed to the Christians above the rest of man-
kind, must have conduced to their own comfort, and
very frequently to the conviction of infidels. Besides
the occasional prodigies, which might sometimes be
effected by the immediate interposition of the Deity
when he suspended the laws of Nature for the service
of religion, the Christian church, from the time of the
apostles and their first disciples,^^ has claimed an un-
37 Tertullian, De Spectaculis, c. 30. In order to ascertain
the degree of authority which the zealous African had acquired,
it may be sufficient to allege the testimony of Cyprian, the
doctor and guide of all the western churches. As often as he
applied himself to his daily study of the writings of Tertullian,
he was accustomed to say, " Da mihi magistrum ; Give me my
master."
28 Notwithstanding the evasions of Dr. Middleton, it is im-
possible to overlook the clear traces of visions and inspiration,
which may be found in the apostolic fathers.
32 THE DECLINE AND FALL
interrupted succession of miraculous powers, the gift
of tongues, of vision and of prophecy, the power of
expelling daemons, of healing the sick, and of raising
the dead. The knowledge of foreign languages was
frequently communicated to the contemporaries of
Irenaeus, though Irenaeus himself was left to struggle
with the difficulties of a barbarous dialect whilst he
preached the gospel to the natives of Gaul. The
divine inspiration, whether it was conveyed in the
form of a waking or of a sleeping vision, is described
as a favour very liberally bestowed on all ranks of
the faithful, on women as on elders, on boys as well
as upon bishops. \Vhen their devout minds were
sufficiently prepared by a course of prayer, of fasting,
and of vigils, to receive the extraordinary impulse,
they were transported out of their senses, and delivered
in extasy what was inspired, being mere organs of the
Holy Spirit, just as a pipe or flute is of him who blows
into it. We may add that the design of these visions
was, for the most part, either to disclose the future
history, or to guide the present administration, of the
church. The expulsion of the daemons from the
bodies of those unhappy persons whom they had been
permitted to torment was considered as a signal,
though ordinary, triumph of religion, and is re-
peatedly alleged by the ancient apologists as the most
convincing evidence of the truth of Christianity. The
awful ceremony was usually performed in a public
manner, and in the presence of a great number of
spectators ; the patient was relieved by the power or
skill of the exorcist, and the vanquished daemon was
heard to confess that he was one of the fabled gods of
antiquity, who had impiously usurped the adoration of
mankind. But the miraculous cure of diseases, of the
most inveterate or even praeternatural kind, can no
longer occasion any surprise, when we recollect that
in the days of Irenaeus, about the end of the second
century, the resurrection of the dead was very far
from being esteemed an uncommon event ; that the
miracle was frequently performed on necessary occa-
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 33
sioDSj by great fasting and the joint supplication of
the church of the place, and that the persons thus re-
stored to their prayers had lived afterwards among
them many years. At such a period^ when faith could
boast of so many wonderful victories over deaths it
seems difficult to account for the scepticism of those
philosophers who still rejected and derided the doctrine
of the resurrection. A noble Grecian had rested on
this important ground the whole controversy^ and
promised Theophilus^, bishop of Antioch, that_, if he
could be gratified with the sight of a single person
who had been actually raised from the dead, he would
immediately embrace the Christian religion. It is
somewhat remarkable that the prelate of the first
eastern church, however anxious for the conversion
of his friend_, thought proper to decline this fair and
reasonable challenge.
The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining
the sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a
very free and ingenious inquiry ; ^ which, though it
has met with the most favourable reception from the
Public, appears to have excited a general scandal
among the divines of our own as well as of the other
Protestant churches of Europe.*^ Our different senti-
ments on this subject will be much less influenced by
any particular arguments than by our habits of study
and reflection ; and, above all, by the degree of the
evidence which we have accustomed ourselves to re-
quire for the proof of a miraculous event. The duty
of an historian does not call upon him to interpose his
private judgment in this nice and important contro-
versy ; but he ought not to dissemble the difficulty of
adopting such a theory as may reconcile the interest
of religion with that of reason, of making a proper
33 Dr. Middleton sent out his Introduction in the year 1747,
published his Free Inquiry in 1749, and before his death, which
happened in 1750, he had prepared a vindication of it against
his numerous adversaries.
•^ The university of Oxford conferred degrees on his oppo-
nents. From the indignation of Mosheim (p. 221), we may
discover the sentiments of Lutheran divines.
VOL. II. B
34 THE DECLINE AND FALL
application of that theory, and of defining with pre-
cision the limits of that happy period, exempt from
error and from deceit, to which we might be disposed
to extend the gift of supernatural powers. From the
first of the fathers to the last of the popes, a succession
of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of miracles is
continued without interruption, and the progress of
superstition was so gradual and almost imperceptible
that we know not in what particular link we should
break the chain of tradition. Every age bears testi-
mony to the wonderful events by which it was distin-
guished, and its testimony appears no less weighty and
respectable than that of the preceding generation, till
we are insensibly led on to accuse our own incoosis-
tency_, if in the eighth or in the twelfth century we
deny to the venerable Bede, or to the holy Bernard,
the same degree of confidence which, in the second
century, we had so liberally granted to Justin or to
Irenseus.'*^ If the truth of any of those miracles is
appreciated by their apparent use and propriety, every
age had unbelievers to convince, heretics to confute,
and idolatrous nations to convert ; and sufficient
motives might always be produced to justify the inter-
position of Heaven. And yet, since every friend to
revelation is persuaded of the reality, and every reason-
able man is convinced of the cessation, of miraculous
powers, it is evident that there must have been some
period in which they were either suddenly or gradually
withdrawn from the Christian church. Whatever aera
is chosen for that purpose, the death of the apostles,
the conversion of the Roman empire, or the extinction
of the Arian heresy,^ the insensibility of the Christians
^ It may seem somewhat remarkable that Bernard of Clair-
vaux, who records so many miracles of his friend St. Malachi,
never takes any notice of his own, which, in their turn, how-
ever, are carefully related by his companions and disciples. In
the long series of ecclesiastical history, does there exist a single
instance of a saint asserting that he himself possessed the gift
of miracles ?
43 The conversion of Constantine is the asra which is most
usually fixed by Protestants, The more rational divines are
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 36
who lived at that time will equally afford a just matter
of surprise. They still supported their pretensions
after they had lost their power. Credulity performed
the office of faith ; fanaticism was permitted to assume
the language of inspiration, and the elfects of accident
or contrivance were ascribed to supernatural causes.
The recent experience of genuine miracles should have
instructed the Christian world in the ways of Provi-
dence, and habituated their eye (if we may use a very
inadequate expression) to the style of the divine artist.
Should the most skilful painter of modern Italy pre-
sume to decorate his feeble imitations with the name
of Raphael or of Correggio, the insolent fraud would
be soon discovered and indignantly rejected.
Whatever opinion may be entertained of the miracles
of the primitive church since the time of the apostles,
this unresisting softness of temper, so conspicuous
among the believers of the second and third centuries,
proved of some accidental benefit to the cause of truth
and religion. In modern times, a latent, and even
involuntary, scepticism adheres to the most pious dis-
positions. Their admission of supernatural truths is
much less an active consent than a cold and passive
acquiescence. Accustomed long since to observe and
to respect the invariable order of Naturp, our reason,
or at least our imagination, is not sufficiently prepared
to sustain the visible action of the Deity. But, in the
first ages of Christianity, the situation of mankind was
extremely different. The most curious, or the most
credulous, among the Pagans were often persuaded to
enter into a society which asserted an actual claim of
miraculous powers. The primitive Christians per-
petually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were
exercised by the habits of believing the most extra-
ordinary events. They felt, or they fancied, that on
©very side they were incessantly assaulted by daemons,
comforted by visions, instructed by prophecy, and
surprisingly delivered from danger, sickness, and from
unwilling to admit the miracles of the fourth, whilst the more
credulous are unwilling to reject those of the fifth century.
36 THE DECLINE AND FALL
death itself, by the supplications of the church. The
real or imaginary prodigies, of which they so frequently
conceived themselves to be the objects, the instruments,
or the spectators, very happily disposed them to adopt,
with the same ease, but with far greater justice, the
authentic wonders of the evangelic history ; and thus
miracles that exceeded not the measure of their own
experience inspired them with the most lively assurance
of mysteries which were acknowledged to surpass the
limits of their understanding. It is this deep impres-
sion of supernatural truths which has been so much
celebrated under the name of faith ; a state of mind
described as the surest pledge of the divine favour and
of future felicity, and recommended as the first or
perhaps the only merit of a Christian. According to
the more rigid doctors, the moral virtues, which may
be equally practised by infidels, are destitute of any
value or efficacy in the work of our justification.
IV. But the primitive Christian demonstrated his
faith by his virtues ; and it was very justly supposed
that the divine persuasion, which enlightened or sub-
dued the understanding, must, at the same time, purify
the heart, and direct the actions, of the believer. The
first apologists of Christianity who justify the innocence
of their brethren, and the writers of a later period who
celebrate the sanctity of their ancestors, display, in
the most lively colours, the reformation of manners
which was introduced into the world by the preaching
of the gospel^ As it is my intention to remark only
such human causes as were permitted to second the
influence of revelation, I shall slightly mention two
motives which might naturally render the lives of the
primitive Christians much purer and more austere than
those of their Pagan contemporaries, or their degene-
rate successors ; repentance for their past sins, and tlie
laudable desire of supporting the reputation of the
society in which they were engaged.
It is a very ancient reproach, suggested by the ignor-
ance or the malice of infidelity, that the Christians
allured into their party the most atrocious criminals,.
OF THE ROMAN ExMPIRE 37
wlio, as soon as they were touched by a sense of re-
morse, were easily persuaded to wash away, in the
water of baptism, the guilt of their past conduct, for
which the temples of the gods refused to grant them
any expiation. But this reproach, when it is cleared
from misrepresentation, contributes as much to the
honour as it did to the increase of the church. The
friends of Christianity may acknowledge without a
blush that many of the most eminent saints had been
before their baptism the most abandoned sinners.
Those persons who in the world had followed, though
in an imperfect manner, the dictates of benevolence
and propriety, derived such a calm satisfaction from
the opinion of their own rectitude, as rendered them
much less susceptible of the sudden emotions of shame,
of grief, and of terror, which have given birth to so
many wonderful conversions. After the example of
their Divine Master, the missionaries of the gospel
disdained not the society of men, and especially of
women, oppressed by the consciousness, and very often
by the effects, of their vices. As they emerged from
sin and superstition to the glorious hope of immortality,
they resolved to devote themselves to a life, not only
of virtue, but of penitence. The desire of perfection
became the ruling passion of their soul ; and it is well
known that, while reason embraces a cold mediocrity,
our passions hurry us, with rapid violence, over the
space which lies between the most opposite extremes.
When the new converts had been enrolled in the
number of the faithful and were admitted to the sacra-
ments of the church, they found themselves restrained
from relapsing into their past disorders by another
consideration of a less spiritual, but of a very innocent
and respectable nature. Any particular society that
has departed from the great body of the nation or the
religion to which it belonged immediately becomes the
object of universal as well as invidious observation.
In proportion to the smallness of its numbers, the
character of the society may be affected by the virtue
and vices of the persons who compose it ; and every
38 THE DECLINE AND FALL
member is engaged to watch with the most vigilant
attention over his own behaviour and over that of his
brethren, since, as he must expect to incur a part of
the common disgrace, he may hope to enjoy a share
of the common reputation. When the Christians
of Bithynia were brought before the tribunal of the
younger Pliny, they assured the proconsul that, far
from being engaged in any unlawful conspiracy, they
were bound by a solemn obligation to abstain from the
commission of those crimes which disturb the private
or public peace of society, from theft, robbery,
adultery, perjury, and fraud. Near a century after-
wards, Tertullian, with an honest pride, could boast
that very few Christians had suffered by the hand of
the executioner, except on account of their religion.
Their serious and sequestered life, averse to the gay
luxury of the age, insured them to chastity, tem-
perance, economy, and all the sober and domestic
virtues. As the greater number were of some trade
or profession, it was incumbent, on them, by the
strictest integrity and the fairest dealing, to remove
the suspicions which the profane are too apt to con-
ceive against the appearances of sanctity. The con-
tempt of the world exercised them in the habits of
humility, meekness, and patience. The more they
were persecuted, the more closely they adhered to
each other. Their mutual charity and unsuspecting
confidence has been remarked by infidels, and was too
often abused by perfidious friends. ^^
It is a very honourable circumstance for the morals
of the primitive Christians, that even their faults, or
rather eiTors, were derived from an excess of virtue. The
bishops and doctors of the church, whose evidence
attests, and whose authority might influence, the pro-
fessions, the principles, and even the practice, of their
contemporaries, had studied the scriptures with less
skill than devotion, and they often received, in the most
43 The philosopher Peregrinus (of whose hfe and death Lucian
has left us so entertaining- an account) imposed, for a long time,
on the credulous simplicity of the Christians of Asia.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 39
literal sense, those rigid precepts of Christ and the
apostles to which the prudence of succeeding com-
mentators has applied a looser and more figurative
mode of interpretation. Ambitious to exalt the per-
fection of the gospel above the wisdom of philosophy,
the zealous fathers have carried the duties of self-
mortification, of purity, and of patience, to a height
which it is scarcely possible to attain, and much less
to preserve, in our present state of weakness and
corruption. A doctrine so extraordinary and so sub-
lime must inevitably command the veneration of the
people ; but it was ill calculated to obtain the sufi*rage
of those worldly philosophers who, in the conduct of
this transitory life, consult only the feelings of nature
and the interest of society.
There are two very natural propensities which we
may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal
dispositions, the love of pleasure and the love of action.
If the former be refined by art and learning, improved
by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by
a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation,
it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness
of private life. The love of action is a principle of a
much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often
leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge'; but, when
it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence,
it becomes the parent of every virtue ; and, if those
virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family,
a state, or an empire may be indebted for their sarfety
and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single
man. To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe
most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may
attribute most of the useful and respectable qualifica-
tions. The character in which both the one and the
other should be united and harmonised would seem to
constitute the most perfect idea of human nature.
The insensible and inactive disposition, which should
be supposed alike destitute of both, would be rejected,
by the common consent of mankind, as utterly incap-
able of procuring any happiness to the individual, or
40 THE DECLINE AND FALL
any public benefit to the world. But it was not in
this world that the primitive Christians were desirous
of making themselves either agreeable or useful.
, The acquisition of knowledge^ the exercise of our
reason or fancy, and the cheerful flow of unguarded
conversation, may employ the leisure of a liberal mind.
Such amusements, however, were rejected with abhor-
rence, or admitted with the utmost caution, by the
severity of the fathers, who despised all knowledge
that was not useful to salvation, and who considered
all levity of discourse as a criminal abuse of the gift
of speech. In our present state of existence, the body
is so inseparably connected with the soul that it seems
to be our interest to taste, with innocence and modera-
tion, the enjoyments of which that faithful companion
is susceptible. Very different was the reasoning of
our devout predecessors ; vainly aspiring to imitate the
perfection of angels, they disdained, or they affected
to disdain, every earthly and corporeal delight. Some
of our senses indeed are necessary for our preservation,
others for our subsistence, and others again for our
information, and thus far it was impossible to reject
the use of them. The first sensation of pleasure was
marked as the first moment of their abuse. The un-
feeling candidate for Heaven was instructed, not only
to resist the grosser allurements of the taste or smell,
but even to shut his ears against the profane harmony
of sounds, and to view with indifference the most
finished productions of human art. Gay apparel, mag-
nificent houses, and elegant furniture were supposed
to unite the double guilt of pride and of sensuality : a
simple and mortified appearance was more suitable to
the Christian who was certain of his sins and doubtful
of his salvation. In their censures of luxury, the
fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial ; and
among the various articles which excite their pious
indignation, we may enumerate false hair, garments
of any colour except white, instruments of music,
vases of gold or silver, downy pillows (as Jacob reposed
his head oh a stone), white bread, foreign wines, public
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 41
salutations^ the use of warm baths, and the practice of
shaving the beard, which, according- to the expression
of Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and an
impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator.
When Christianity was introduced among the rich and
the polite, the observation of these singular laws was
left, as it would be at present, to the few who were
ambitious of superior sanctity. But it is always easy,
as well as agreeable, for the inferior ranks of mankind
to claim a merit from the contempt of that pomp and
pleasure, which fortune has placed beyond their reach.
The virtue of the primitive Christians, like that of the
first Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty
and ignorance.
The chaste severity of the fathers, in whatever related
to the commerce of the two sexes, flowed from the same
principle ; their abhorrence of every enjoyment which
might gratify the sensual, and degrade the spiritual,
nature of man. It was their favourite opinion that, if
Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he
would have lived for ever in a state of virgin purity,
and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have
peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal
beings. The use of marriage was permitted only to
his fallen posterity, as a necessary expedient to con-
tinue the human species, and as a restraint, however
imperfect, on the natural licentiousness of desire. The
hesitation of the orthodox casuists on this interesting
subject betrays the perplexity of men, unwilling to
approve an institution which they were compelled to
tolerate.*^ The enumeration of the very whimsical
laws, which they most circumstantially imposed on the
marriage-bed, would force a smile from the young,
and a blush from the fair. It was their unanimous
sentiment that a first marriage was adequate to all the
purposes of nature and of society. The sensual connec-
tion was refined into a resemblance of the mystic union
of Christ with his church, and was pronounced to be
^ Some of the Gnostic heretics were more consistent ; they
rejected the use of marriage.
VOL. II. B 2
42 THE DECLINE AND FALL
indissoluble either by divorce or by death. The prac-
tice of second nuptials was branded with the name of
a legal adultery ; and the persons who were guilty of
so scandalous an offence against Christian purity were
soon excluded from the honours, and even from the
alms, of the church. Since desire was imputed as a
crime, and marriage was tolerated as a defect, it was
consistent with the same principles to consider a state
of celibacy as the nearest approach to the divine per-
fection. It was with the utmost difficulty that ancient
Rome could support the institution of six vestals ; ^
but the primitive church was filled with a great number
of persons of either sex who had devoted themselves to
the profession of perpetual chastity. A few of these,
among whom we may reckon the learned Origen,
judged it the most prudent to disarm the tempter.*^
Some were insensible and some were invincible against
the assaults of the flesh. Disdaining an ignominious
flight, the virgins of the warm climate of Africa en-
countered the enemy in the closest engagement ; they
permitted priests and deacons to share their bed, and
gloried amidst the flames in their unsullied purity.
But insulted Nature sometimes vindicated her rights,
and this new species of martyrdom served only to in-
troduce a new scandal into the church. *'^ Among the
Christian ascetics, however (a name which they soon
acquired from their painful exercise), many, as they
were less presumptuous, were probably more success-
ful. The loss of sensual pleasure was supplied and
^ Notwithstanding the honours and rewards which were be-
stowed on those virgins, it was difficult to procure a sufficient
number ; nor could the dread of the most horrible death always
restrain their incontinence.
•*6 Before the fame of Origen had excited envy and persecu-
tion, this extraordinary action was rather admired than censured.
As it was his general practice to allegorise scripture, it seems
unfortunate that, in this instance only, he should have adopted
the literal sense.
47 Something like this rash attempt was long afterwards im-
puted to the founder of the order of Fonlevrauli. Bayle has
amused himself and his readers on that very delicate subject.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 43
compensated by spiritual pride. Even the multitude
of Pagans were inclined to estimate the merit of the
sacrifice by its apparent difficulty ; and it was in the
praise of these chaste spouses of Christ that the fathers
have poured forth the troubled stream of their elo-
quence. Such are the early traces of monastic prin-
ciples and institutions which^ in a subsequent age,
have counterbalanced all the temporal advantages of
Christianity.'^
The Christians were not less averse to the business
than to the pleasures of this world. The defence of
our persons and property they knew not how to recon-
cile with the patient doctrine which enjoined an un-
limited forgiveness of past injuries and commanded
them to invite the repetition of fresh insults. Their
simplicity was offended by the use of oaths, by the
pomp of magistracy, and by the active contention of
public life, nor could their humane ignorance be con-
vinced that it was lawful on any occasion to shed the
blood of our fellow-creatures, either by the sword of
justice or by that of war ; even though their criminal
or hostile attempts should threaten the peace and
safety of the whole community.*^ It was acknowledged
that, under a less perfect law, the powers of the Jewish
constitution had been exercised, with the approbation
of Heaven, by inspired prophets and by anointed kings.
The Christians felt and confessed that such institutions
might be necessary for the present system of the world,
and they cheerfully submitted to the authority of their
Pagan governors. But, while they inculcated the
maxims of passive obedience, they refused to take
any active part in the civil administration or the
military defence of the empire. Some indulgence
might perhaps be allowed to those persons who, before
^ The Ascetics (as early as the second century) made a public
profession of mortifying their bodies, and of abstaining from the
use of flesh and wine.
49 The same patient principles have been revived since the
Reformation by the Socinians, the modern Anabaptists, and
the Quakers. ^
44 THE DECLINE AND FALL
their conversion^ were already engag-ed in such violent
and sanguinary occupations ; but it was impossible
that the Christians_, without renouncing a more sacred
duty, could assume the character of soldiers, of magi-
strates, or of princes. ^*^ This indolent, or even
criminal, disregard to the public welfare exposed them
to the contempt and reproaches of the Pagans, who
very frequently asked. What must be the fate of the
empire, attacked on every side by the barbarians, if ail
mankind should adopt the pusillanimous sentiments of
the new sect?^^ To this insulting question the Chris-
tian apologists returned obscure and ambiguous answers,,
as they were unwilling to reveal the secret cause of
their security ; the expectation that, before the con-
version of mankind was accomplished, war, govern-
ment, the Roman empire and the world itself would
be no more. It may be observed that, in this in-
stance likewise, the situation of the first Christians
coincided very happily with their religious scruples,
and that their aversion to an active life contri-
buted rather to excuse them from the service, than
to exclude them from the honours, of the state and
army.
V. But the human character, however it may be
exalted or depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will
return, by degrees, to its proper and natural level,
and will resume those passions that seem the most
adapted to its present condition. The primitive
Christians were dead to the business and pleasures of
the world ; but their love of action, which could never
be entirely extinguished, soon revived, and found a
new occupation in the government of the church. A
separate society, which attacked the established re-
50 Tertullian (De Corona Militis, c. ii) suggests to them the
expedient of deserting; a counsel which, if it had been gene-
rally known, was not very proper to conciliate the favour of the
emperors tov/ards the Christian sect.
51 As well as we can judge from the mutilated representation
of Origen (1. viii. p. 423), his adversary, Celsus, had urged bis
objection with great force and candour.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 45
iigion of the empire, was obliged to adopt some form
of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number
of ministers, intrusted not only with the spiritual
functions, but even with the temporal direction, of the
Christian commonwealth. The safety of that society,
its honour, its aggrandisement, were productive, even
in the most pious minds, of a spirit of patriotism, such
as the first of the Romans had felt for the republic,
and sometimes, of a similar indifference in the use of
whatever means might probably conduce to so desir-
able an end. The ambition of raising themselves or
their friends to the honours and offices of the church
was disguised by the laudable intention of devoting to
the public benefit the power and consideration which,
for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit.
In the exercise of their functions, they were frequently
called upon to detect the errors of heresy, or the arts
of faction, to oppose the designs of perfidious brethren,
to stigmatise their characters with deserved infamy,
and to expel them from the bosom of a society whose
peace and happiness they had attempted to disturb.
The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were
taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the
innocence of the dove ; but, as the former was re-
fined, so the latter was insensibly corrupted, by the
habits of government. In the church as well as in
the world the persons who were placed in any public
station rendered themselves considerable by their
eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of man-
kind, and by their dexterity in business ; and, while
they concealed from others, and, perhaps, from them-
selves, the secret motives of their conduct, they too
frequently relapsed into all the turbulent passions of
active life, which were tinctured with an additional
degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of
spiritual zeal.
The government of the church has often been the
subject, as well as the prize, of religious contention.
The hostile disputants of Rome, of Paris, of Oxford
and of Geneva have alike struggled to reduce the
46 THE DECLINE AND FALL
primitive and apostolic modeP^ to the respective
standards of their own policy. The few who have
pursued this inquiry with more candour and im-
partiality are of opinion ^^ that the apostles declined
the office of legislation, and rather chose to endure
some partial scandals and divisions than to' exclude
the Christians of a future age from the liberty of
varying their forms of ecclesiastical government accor-
ding to the changes of times and circumstances. The
scheme of policy which, under their approbation, was
adopted for the use of the first century may be dis-
covered from the practice of Jerusalem, of Ephesus,
or of Corinth. The societies which were instituted in
the cities of the Roman empire were united only by
the ties of faith and charity. Independence and
equality formed the basis of their internal constitution.
The want of discipline and human learning was sup-
plied by the occasional assistance of the prophets, who
were called to that function, without distinction of
age, of sex, or of natural abilities, and who, as often
as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth the
effusions of the spirit on the assembly of the faithful.
But these extraordinary gifts were frequently abused
or misapplied by the prophetic teachers. They dis-
played them at an improper season, presumptuously
disturbed the service of the assembly, and by their
pride or mistaken zeal they introduced, particularly
into the apostolic church of Corinth, a long and
melancholy train of disorders. As the institution of
prophets became useless, and even pernicious, their
powers were withdrawn and their office abolished.
The public functions of religion were solely intrusted
to the established ministers of the church, the bishops
and the presbyters; two appellations which, in their
52 The aristocratical party in France, as well as in England,
has strenuously maintained the divine origin of bishops. But
the Calvinistical presbyters were impatient of a superior ; and
the Roman Pontiff refused to acknowledge an equal.
63 In the history of the Christian hierarchy, I have, for the
most part, followed the learned and candid Mosheim,
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 47
first origin, appear to have distinguished the same office
and the same order of persons. The name of Presbyter
was expressive of their age, or rather of their gravityand
wisdom. The title of Bishop denoted their inspection
over the faith and manners of the Christians who were
committed to their pastoral care. In proportion to the
respective numbers of the faithful, a larger or smaller
number of these episcopal presbyters guided each in-
fant congregation with equal authority and with united
councils.
But the most perfect equality of freedom requires
the directing hand of a superior magistrate ; and the
order of public deliberations soon introduces the office
of a president, invested at least with the authority of
collecting the sentiments, and of executing the resolu-
tions, of the assembly. A regard for the public tran-
quillity, which would so frequently have been interrupted
by annual or by occasional elections, induced the
primitive Christians to constitute an honourable and
perpetual magistracy, and to choose one of the wisest
and most holy amougitheir presb\i;ers to execute, during
his life, the duties of their ecclesiastical governor. It
was under these circumstances that the lofty title of
Bishop began to raise itself above the humble appella-
tion of presbyter ; and, while the latter remained the
most natural distinction for the members of every
Christian senate, the former was appropriated to the
dignity of its new president. °^ Tlie advantages of this
episcopal form of government, which appears to have
been introduced before the end of the iirst century,^
54 The ancient state, as it is described by Jerome, of the
bishop and presbyters of Alexandria receives a remarkable con-
firmation from the patriarch Eutychius (Annal. torn. i. p. 330,
Vers. Pocock), whose testimony I know not how to reject, in
spite of all the objections of the learned Pearson in his Vindiciae
Ignatianse, part i. c. 11.
55 See the introduction to the Apocalypse. Bishops, under
the name of angels, were already instituted in seven cities of
Asia. And yet the epistle of Clemens (which is probably of as
ancient a date) does not lead us to discover any traces of
episcopacy either at Corinth or Rome.
48 THE DECLINE AND FALL
were so obvious, and so important for the future
greatness, as well as the present peace, of Christianity,
that it was adopted without delay by all the societies
which were already scattered over the empire, had ac-
quired in a very early period the sanction of antiquity,^^
and is still revered by the most powerful churches,
both of the East and of the West, as a primitive and
even as a divine establishment. °'^ It is needless to
observe that the pious and humble presbyters who
were first dig-nified with the episcopal title could not
possess, and would probably have rejected, the power
and pomp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman
Pontiff, or the mitre of a German prelate. But
we may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of
their original jurisdiction, which was chiefly of a
spiritual, though in some instances of a temporal,
nature. It consisted in the administration of the
sacraments and discipline of the church, the super-
intendency of religious ceremonies, which imperceptibly
increased in number and variety, the consecration of
ecclesiastical ministers, to whom the bishop assigned
their respective functions, the management of the
public fund, and the determination of all such differ-
ences as the faithful were unwilling to expose before
the tribunal of an idolatrous judge. These powers,
during a short period, were exercised according to
the advice of the presbyteral college, and with the
consent and approbation of the assembly of Chris-
tians. The primitive bishops were considered only
as the first of their equals, and the honourable
servants of a free people. Whenever the episcopal
chair became vacant by death, a new president was
chosen among the presbyters by the suffrage of the
whole congregation, every member of which sup-
^ Nulla Ecclesia sine Episcopo, has been a fact as well as a
maxim since the time of Tertullian and Irenaeus,
57 After we have passed the difficulties of the first century, we
find the episcopal government universally established, till it was
interrupted by the republican genius of the Swiss and German
reformers.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 49
posed himself invested with a sacred aud sacerdotal
character.
Such was the mild and equal constitution by which
the Christians were governed more than a hundred
years after the death of the apostles. Every society
formed within itself a separate aud independent re-
public : and, although the most distant of these little
states maintained a mutual as well as friendly inter-
course of letters and deputations, the Christian world
was not yet connected by any supreme authority or
legislative assembly. As the numbers of the faith-
ful were gradually multiplied, they discovered the
advantages that might result from a closer union of
their interest and designs. Towards the end of the
second century, the churches of Greece and Asia
adopted the useful institutions of provincial synods,
and they may justly be supposed to have borrowed
the model of a representative council from the cele-
brated examples of their own country, the Amphictyons,
the Achaean league, or the assemblies of the Ionian
cities. It was soon established as a custom and as a
law that the bishops of the independent churches should
meet in the capital of the province at the stated periods
of spring and autumn. Their deliberations were
assisted by the advice of a few distinguished presbyters,
and moderated by the presence of a listening multi-
tude. °* Their decrees, which were styled Canons,
regulated every important controversy of faith and
discipline ; and it was natural to believe that a liberal
effusion of the Holy Spirit would be poured on the
united assembly of the delegates of the Christian
people. The institution of synods was so well suited
to private ambition and to public interest that in
the space of a few years it was received throughout
the whole empire. A regular correspondence was
established between the provincial councils, which
5* This council was composed of eighty-seven bishops from
the provinces of Mauritania, Numidia, and Africa ; some
presbyters and deacons assisted at the assembly ; praesente
plebis maximi parte.
60 THE DECLINE AND FALL
mutually communicated and approved their respective
proceedings ; and the Catholic church soon assumed
the form, and acquired the stren^h, of a great
federative republic.
As the legislative authority of the particular churches
was insensibly superseded by the use of councils, the
bishops obtained by their alliance a much larger share
of executive and arbitrary power ; and, as soon as
they were connected by a sense of their common
interest, they were enabled to attack, with united
vigour, the original rights of their clergy and people.
The prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed
the language of exhortation into that of command,
scattered the seeds of future usurpations, and supplied,
by scripture allegories and declamatory rhetoric, their
deficiency of force and of reason. They exalted the
unity and power of the church, as it was represented
in the episcopal office, of which every bishop enjoyed
an equal and undivided portion. Princes and magis-
trates, it was often repeated, might boast an earthly
claim to a transitory dominion ; it was the episcopal
authority alone which was derived from the Deity, and
extended itself over this and over another world. The
bishops were the vicegerents of Christ, the successors
of the apostles, and the mystic substitutes of the high
priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclusive privilege of
conferring the sacerdotal character invaded the freedom
both of clerical and of popular elections ; and if, in the
administration of the church, they still consulted the
judgment of the presbyters or the inclination of the
people, they most carefully inculcated the merit of
such a voluntary condescension. The bishops acknow-
ledged the supreme authority which resided in the
assembly of their brethren ; but, in the government of
his peculiar diocese, each of them exacted from his
flock the same implicit obedience as if that favourite
metaphor had been literally just, and as if the shepherd
had been of a more exalted nature than that of his
sheep. This obedience, however, was not imposed
without some efforts on one side, and some resistance
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 51
on the other. The democratical part of the consti-
tution was, in many places, very wamily supported by
the zealous or interested opposition of the inferior
clergy. But their patriotism received the ignominious
epithets of faction and schism ; and the episcopal cause
was indebted for its rapid progress to the labours of
many active prelates, who, like Cyprian of Carthage,
could reconcile the arts of the most ambitious states-
man with the Christian virtues which seem adapted to
the character of a saint and martyr.^
The same causes which at first had destroyed the
equality of the presbyters introduced among the
bishops a pre-eminence of rank, and from thence a
superiority of jurisdiction. As often as in the spring
and autumn they met in provincial synod, the differ-
ence of personal merit and reputation was very sensibly
felt among the members of the assembly, and the
multitude was governed by the wisdom and eloquence
of the few. But the order of public proceedings
required a more regular and less invidious distinction ;
the office of perpetual presidents in the councils of
each province was conferred on the bishops of the
principal city, and these aspiring prelates, who soon
acquired the lofty titles of Metropolitans and Primates,
secretly prepared themselves to usurp over their epis-
copal brethren the same authority which the bishops
had so lately assumed above the college of presbyters.
Nor was it long before an emulation of pre-eminence
and power prevailed among the metropolitans them-
selves, each of them affecting to display, in the most
pompous terms, the temporal honours and advantages
of the city over which he presided ; the numbers and
opulence of the Christians who were subject to their
pastoral care ; the saints and martyrs who had arisen
among them, and the purity with which they preserved
the tradition of the faith, as it had been transmitted
59 If Novatus, Felicissimus, &c. , whom the bishop of Carthage
expelled from his church, and from Africa, were not the most
detestable monsters of wickedness, the zeal of Cyprian must
occasionally have prevailed over his veracity.
62 THE DECLINE AND FALL
throug-h a series of orthodox bishops from the apostle
or the apostolic disciple, to whom the foundation of
their church was ascribed. ^'^ From every cause, either
of a civil or of an ecclesiastical nature, it was easy tG
foresee that Rome must enjoy the respect, and would
soon claim the obedience, of the provinces. The
society of the faithful bore a just proportion of the
capital of the empire ; and the Roman church was the
greatest, the most numerous, and, in regard to the
West, the most ancient of all the Christian establish-
ments, many of which had received their religion from
the pious labours of her missionaries. Instead of one
apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, of
Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tiber were
supposed to have been honoured with the preaching
and martyrdom of the two most eminent among the
apostles ; ^^ and the bishops of Rome very prudently
claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives
were attributed either to the person or to the office of
St. Peter. ^2 The bishops of Italy and of the provinces
were disposed to allow them a primacy of order and
association (such was their very accurate expression)
in the Christian aristocracy. But the power of a
monarch was rejected with abhorrence, and the aspir-
ing genius of Rome experienced, from the nations of
Asia and Africa, a more vigorous resistance to her
spiritual, than she had formerly done to her temporal,
dominion. The patriotic Cyprian, who ruled with the
60 TertuUian, in a distinct treatise, has pleaded against the
heretics the right of prescription, as it was held by the apostolic
churches.
51 The journey of St. Peter to Rome is mentioned by most of
the ancients, maintained by all the Catholics, allowed by some
Protestants, but has been vigorously attacked by Spanheim
(Miscellanea Sacra, iii. 3). According to Father Hardouin, the
monks of the thirteenth century, who composed the ^Eneid,
represented St. Peter under the allegorical character of the
Trojan hero.
62 It is in French only that the famous allusion to St. Peter's
name is exact. Tu es Pierre et sur c&iie, pierre. — The same is
imperfect in Greek, Latin, Italian, &c., and totally unintelligible
vn our Teutonic languages.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 63
most absolute sway the church of Carthage and the
provincial synods, opposed with resolution and success
the ambition of the Roman pontiff, artfully connected
his own cause with that of the eastern bishops, and,
like Hannibal, sought out new allies in the heart of
Asia. If this Punic war was carried on without any
eiiusion of blood, it was owing much less to the
moderation than to the weakness of the contending
prelates. Invectives and excommunications were their
only weapons ; and these, during the progress of the
■whole controversy, they hurled against each other
with equal fury and devotion. The hard necessity of
censuring either a pope, or a saint and martyr, dis-
tresses the modern Catholics, whenever they are
obliged to relate the particulars of a dispute in which
the champions of religion indulged such passions as
seem much more adapted to the senate or to the camp.
The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave
birth to the memorable distinction of the laity and of
the clergy, which had been imknown to the Greeks
and Romans. The former of these appellations com-
prehended the body of the Christian people; the latter,
according to the signification of the word, was appro-
priated to the chosen portion that had been set apart
for the service of religion ; a celebrated order of men
which has furnished the most important, though not
always the most edifying, subjects for modern history.
Their mutual hostilities sometimes disturbed the peace
of the infant church, but their zeal and activity were
united in the common cause, and the love of power,
which (under the most artful disguises) could insinuate
itself into the breasts of bishops and martyrs, animated
them to increase the number of their subjects, and to
enlarge the limits of the Christian empire, lliey were
destitute of any temporal force, and they were for a
long time discouraged and oppressed, rather than
assisted, by the civil magistrate ; but they had ac-
quired, and they employed within their own society,
the two most efficacious instruments of government,
rewards and punishments ; the former derived from
64 THE DECLINE AND FALL
the pious liberality, the latter from the devout appre-
hensions, of the faithful.
I. The community of goods, which had so agreeably
amused the imagination of Plato,^^ and which sub-
sisted in some degree among the austere sect of the
Essenians, was adopted for a short time in the
primitive church. The fervour of the first proselytes
prompted them to sell those worldly possessions which
they despised, to lay the price of them at the feet
of the apostles, and to content themselves with re-
ceiving an equal share out of the general distribution.
The progress of the Christian religion relaxed, and
gradually abolished, this generous institution, which,
in hands less pure than those of the apostles, would too
soon have been corrupted and abused by the returning
selfishness of human nature ; and the converts who
embraced the new religion were permitted to retain
the possession of their patrimony, to receive legacies
and inheritances, and to increase their separate pro-
perty by all the lawful means of trade and industry.
Instead of an absolute sacrifice, a moderate proportion
was accepted by the ministers of the gospel ; and in
their weekly or monthly assemblies, every believer,
according to the exigency of the occasion, and the
measure of his wealth and piety, presented his
voluntary offering for the use of the common fund.
Nothing, however inconsiderable, was refused ; but it
was diligently inculcated that, in the article of Tythes,
the Mosaic law was still of divine obligation ; and
that, since the Jews, under a less perfect discipline,
had been commanded to pay a tenth part of all that
they possessed, it would become the disciples of
Christ to distinguish themselves by a superior degree
of liberality,^* and to acquire some merit by resigning
68 The community instituted by Plato is more perfect than
that which Sir Thomas More had imagined for his Utopia.
The community of women, and that of temporal goods, may
be considered as inseparable parts of the same system.
•4 The Constitutions introduce this divine precept by de-
claring that priests are as much above kings, as the soul is
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 56
a superfluous treasure, which must so soon be annihi-
lated with the world itself,^ It is almost unnecessary
to observe that the revenue of each particular church,
which was of so uncertain and fluctuating a nature,
must have varied with the poverty or the opulence of
the faithful, as they were dispersed in obscure villages,
or collected in the great cities of the empire. In the
time of the emperor Decius, it was the opinion of the
magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed
of very considerable wealth ; that vessels of gold and
silver were used in their religious worship ; and that
many among their proselytes had sold their lands and
houses to increase the public riches of the sect, at the
expense, indeed, of their unfortunate children, who
found themselves beggars, because their parents had
been saints.^ We should listen with distrust to the
suspicions of strangers and enemies : on this occasion,
however, they receive a very specious and probable
colour from the two following circumstances, the only
ones that have reached our knowledge, which define
any precise sums, or convey any distinct idea. Almost
at the same period, the bishop of Carthage, from a
society less opulent than that of Rome, collected a
hundred thousand sesterces (above eight hundred and
fifty pounds sterling), on a sudden call of charity, to
redeem the brethren of Numidia, who had been carried
away captives by the barbarians of the desert. About
an hundi'ed years before the reign of Decius, the
Roman church had received, in a single donation, the
sum of two hundred thousand sesterces from a stranger
above the body. Among the tythable articles, they enumerate
corn, wine, oil, and wood.
65 The same opinion which prevailed about the year looo was
productive of the same effects. Most of the donations express
their motive, " appropinquante mundi fine."
6« The subsequent conduct of the deacon Laurence only
proves how proper a use was made of the wealth of the Roman
church ; it was undoubtedly very considerable ; but Fra Paolo
(c. 3) appears to exaggerate when he supposes that the succes-
sors of Commodus were urged to persecute the Christians by
their own avarice, or that of their Praetorian praefects.
66 THE DECLINE AND FALL
of Pontus, who proposed to fix his residence in the
capital. These oblations, for the most part, were made
in money ; nor was the society of Christians either
desirous or capable of acquiring, to any considerable
degree, the incumbrance of landed property. It had
been provided by several laws, which were enacted
with the same design as our statutes of mortmain, that
no real estates should be given or bequeathed to any
corporate body, without either a special privilege or a
particular dispensation from the emperor or from the
senate ; who were seldom disposed to grant them in
favour of a sect, at first the object of their contempt,
and at last of their fears and jealousy. A transaction,
however, is related under the reign of Alexander
Severus, which discovers that the restraint was some-
times eluded or suspended, and that the Christians
were permitted to claim and to possess lands within the
limits of Rome itself.®*" The progress of Christianity
and the civil confusion of the empire contributed to
relax the severity of the laws ; and, before the close of
the third century, many considerable estates were
bestowed on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan,
Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, and the other great
cities of Italy and the provinces.
The bishop was the natural steward of the church ;
the public stock was intrusted to his care, without
account or control ; the presbyters were confined to
their spiritual functions, and the more dependent order
of deacons was solely employed in the management and
distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue. If we may
give credit to the vehement declamations of Cyprian,
there were too many among his African brethren who,
in the execution of their charge, violated every precept,
not only of evangelic perfection, but even of
moral virtue. By some of these unfaithful stewards,
the riches of the church were lavished in sensual
pleasures, by others they were perverted to the pur-
poses of private gain, of fraudulent purchases, and of
^ The ground had been public ; and was now disputed be-
tween the society of Christians and that of butchers.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 57
rapacious usury. But, as long as the contributions
of the Christian people were free and unconstrained,
the abuse of their conhdence could not be very frequent,
and the general uses to which their liberality was
applied reflected honour on the religious society. A
decent portion was reserved for the maintenance of the
bishop and his clergy ; a sufficient sum was allotted
for the expenses of the public worship, of which the
feasts of love, the agapce, as they were called, constituted
a very pleasing part. The whole remainder was the
sacred patrimony of the poor. According to the dis-
cretion of the bishop, it was distributed to support
widows and orphans, the lame, the sick, and the aged
of the community ; to comfort strangers and pilgrims,
and to alleviate the misfortunes of prisoners and cap-
tives, more especially when their sufferings had been
occasioned by their firm attachment to the cause of
religion. A generous intercourse of charity united
the most distant provinces, and the smaller congrega-
tions were cheerfully assisted by the alms of their
more opulent brethren. Such an institution, which
paid less regard to the merit than to the distress of
the object, very materially conduced to the progress
of Christianity. The Pagans, who were actuated by a
sense of humanity, while they derided the doctrines,
acknowledged the benevolence, of the new sect.*^ The
prospect of immediate relief and of future protection
allured into its hospitable bosom many of those un-
happy persons whom the neglect of the world would
have abandoned to the miseries of want, of sickness,
and of old age. There is some reason likewise to
believe that great numbers of infants who, according
to the inhuman practice of the times, had been exposed
by their parents were frequently rescued from death,
baptized, educated, and maintained by the piety of
the Christians, and at the expense of the public
treasure.^^
63 Julian (Epist. 49) seems mortified that the Christian charity
maintains not only their own, but likewise the heathen poor.
^' Such, at least, has been the laudable conduct of more
68 THE DECLINE AND FALL
II. It is the undoubted right of every society to
exclude from its communion and benefits such among
its members as reject or violate those regulations
which have been established by general consent. In
the exercise of this power, the censures of the Christian
church were chiefly directed against scandalous sinners,
and particularly those who were guilty of murder, of
fraud, or of incontinence ; against the authors, or the
followers, of any heretical opinions which had been
condemned by the judgment of the episcopal order ;
and against those unhappy persons who, whether from
choice or from compulsion, had polluted themselves
after their baptism by any act of idolatrous worship.
The consequences of excommunication were of a tem-
poral as well as a spiritual nature. The Christian
against whom it was pronounced was deprived of any
part in the oblations of the faithful. The ties both of
religious and of private friendship were dissolved ; he
found himself a profane object of abhorrence to the
persons whom he the most esteemed, or by whom he
had been the most tenderly beloved ; and, as far as an
expulsion from a respectable society could imprint on
his character a mark of disgrace, he was shunned or
suspected by the generality of mankind. The situation
of these unfortunate exiles was in itself very painful
and melancholy ; but, as it usually happens, their appre-
hensions far exceeded their sufferings. The benefits
of the Christian communion were those of eternal life,
nor could they erase from their minds the awful
opinion, that to those ecclesiastical governors by
whom they were condemned the Deity had committed
the keys of Hell and of Paradise. The heretics, in-
deed, who might be supported by the consciousness
of their intentions, and by the flattering hope that
they alone had discovered the true path of salvation,
endeavoured to regain, in their separate assemblies,
those comforts, temporal as well as spiritual, which
modern missionaries, under the same circumstances. Above
three thousand new-born infants are annually exposed in the
streets of Pekin.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 59
they no longer derived from the great society of
Christians. But almost all those who had reluctantly
yielded to the power of vice or idolatry were sensible
of their fallen condition, and anxiously desirous of
being- restored to the benefits of the Christian com-
munion.
With reg-ard to the treatment of these penitents,
two opposite opinions, the one of justice, the other of
mercy, divided the primitive church. The more rigid
and inflexible casuists refused them for ever, and with-
out exception, the meanest place in the holy com-
munity, which they had disffraced or deserted, and,
leaving them to the remorse of a guilty conscience,
indulged them only with a faint ray of hope that the
contrition of their life and death might possibly be
accepted by the Supreme Being. ^*^ A milder senti-
ment was embraced, in practice as well as in theory,
by the purest and most respectable of the Christian
churches. The gates of reconciliation and of Heaven
were seldom shut against the returning penitent ; but
a severe and solemn form of discipline was instituted,
which, while it served to expiate his crime, might
powerfully deter the spectators froili the imitation of
his example. Humbled by a public confession, ema-
ciated by fasting, and clothed in sackcloth, the penitent
lay prostrate at the door of the assembly, imploring,
with tears, the pardon of his offences, and soliciting
the prayers of the faithful. "^ If the fault was of a very
heinous nature, whole years of penance were esteemed
an inadequate satisfaction to the Divine Justice ; and
it was always by slow and painful gradations that the
sinner, the heretic, or the apostate was re-admitted
into the bosom of the church. A sentence of perpetual
excommunication was, however, reserved for some
crimes of an extraordinary magnitude, and particularly
70 The Montanists and the Novatians, who adhered to this
opinion with the greatest rigour and obstinacy, found themselves
at last in the number of excommunicated heretics.
^ The admirers of antiquity regret the loss of this public
penance.
60 THE DECLINE AND FALL
for the inexcusable relapses of those penitents who
had already experienced and abused the clemency of
their ecclesiastical superiors. According to the cir-
cumstances or the number of the guilty, the exercise
of the Christian discipline was varied by the discretion
of the bishops. The councils of Ancyra and Illiberis
were held about the same time^ the one in Galatia,
the other in Spain ; but their respective canons, which
are still extant, seem to breathe a very different spirit.
The Galatian, who after his baptism had repeatedly
sacrificed to idols^ might obtain his pardon by a penance
of seven years, and, if he had seduced others to imitate
his example^ only three years more were added to the
term of his exile. But the unhappy Spaniard, who
had committed the same offence, was deprived of the
hope of reconciliation, even in the article of death ;
and his idolatry was placed at the head of a list of
seventeen other crimes, against which a sentence, no
less terrible, was pronounced. Among these we may
distinguish the inexpiable guilt of calumniating a
bishop, a presbyter, or even a deacon.''^
The well-tempered mixture of liberality and rigour,
the judicious dispensation of rewards and punishments,
according to the maxims of policy as well as justice,
constituted the human strength of the church. The
bishops, whose paternal care extended itself to the
government of both worlds, were sensible of the im-
portance of these prerogatives, and, covering their
ambition with the fair pretence of the love of order,
they were jealous of any rival in the exercise of a
discipline so necessary to prevent the desertion of
those troops which had inlisted themselves under the
banner of the cross, and whose numbers every day
72 See in Dupin, Bibliotheque Eccldsiastique, torn, ii. pp. 304-
313, a short but rational exposition of the canons of those
councils, which were assembled in the first moments of tran-
quillity after the persecution of Diocletian. This persecution
had been much less severely felt in Spain than in Galatia ; a
difference which may, in some measure, account for the con-
trast of their regulations.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 61
became more considerable. From the imperious de-
clamations of Cyprian we should naturally conclude
that the doctrines of excommunication and penance
formed the most essential part of religion ; and that it
was much less dangerous for the disciples of Christ to
neglect the observance of the moral duties than to
despise the censures and authority of their bishops.
Sometimes we might imagine that we were listening
to the voice of Moses, when he commanded the earth
to open, and to swallow up, in consuming flames, the
rebellious race which refused obedience to the priest-
hood of Aaron ; and we should sometimes suppose
that we heard a Roman consul asserting the majesty
of the republic, and declaring his inflexible resolution
to enforce the rigour of the laws. ''If such irregu-
larities are su fleered with impunity (it is thus that the
bishop of Carthage chides the lenity of his colleague),
if such irregularities are sufl^ered, there is an end of
Episcopal vigour ; an end of the sublime and divine
power of governing the church, an end of Christianity
itself." Cyprian had renounced those temporal
honours which it is probable he would never have
obtained; but the acquisition of such absolute command
over the consciences and understanding of a congre-
gation, however obscure or despised by the world, is
more truly grateful to the pride of the human heart
than the possession of the most despotic power imposed
by arms and conquest on a reluctant people.
In the course of this important, though perhaps
tedious, inquiry, I have attempted to display the
secondary causes which so eflacaciously assisted the
truth of the Christian religion. If among these causes
we have discovered any artificial ornaments, any acci-
dental circumstances, or any mixture of error and
passion, it cannot appear surprising that mankind
should be the most sensibly afi'ected by such motives
as were suited to their imperfect nature. It was by
the aid of these causes, exclusive zeal, the immediate
expectation of another world, the claim of miracles,
the practice of rigid virtue, and the constitution of the
62 THE DECLINE AND FALL
primitive church, that Christianity spread itself with
so much success in the Roman empire. To the first
of these the Christians were indebted for their in-
vincible valour, which disdained to capitulate with the
enemy whom they were resolved to vanquish. The
three succeeding causes supplied their valour with the
most formidable arms. The last of these causes united
their courag-e, directed their arms, and gave their
efforts that irresistible weight which even a small band
of well-trained and intrepid volunteers has so often
possessed over an undisciplined multitude, ignorant of
the subject, and careless of the event of the war. In
the various religions of Polytheism, some wandering
fanatics of Egypt and Syria, who addressed themselves
to the credulous superstition of the populace, were
perhaps the only order of priests ^^ that derived their
whole support and credit from their sacerdotal pro-
fession, and were very deeply affected by a personal
concern for the safety or prosperity of their tutelar
deities. The ministers of Polytheism, both in Rome
and in the provinces, were, for the most part, men of
a noble birth, and of an affluent fortune, who received,
as an honourable distinction, the care of a celebrated
temple, or of a public sacrifice, exhibited, very fre-
quently at their own expense, the sacred games,''* and
with cold indifference performed the ancient rites,
according to the laws and fashion of their country.
As they were engaged in the ordinary occupations of
life, their zeal and devotion were seldom animated by
a sense of interest, or by the habits of an ecclesiastical
character. Confined to their respective temples and
cities, they remained without any connection of dis-
cipline or government ; and, whilst they acknowledged
'3 The arts, the manners, and the vices of the priests of the
Syrian goddess are very humorously described by Apuleius, in
the eighth book of his Metamorphoses.
74 The office of Asiarch was of this nature, and it is frequently
mentioned in Aristides, the Inscriptions, &c. It was annual
and elective. None but the vainest citizens could desire the
honour ; none but the most wealthy could support the expense.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 63
the supreme jurisdiction of the senate, of the college
of pontiffs, and of the emperor, those civil ma^strates
contented themselves vvith the easy task of maintaining,
in peace and dignity, the general worship of mankind.
We have already seen how various, how loose, and
how uncertain were the religious sentiments of Poly-
theists. They were abandoned, almost without control,
to the natural workings of a superstitious fancy. The
accidental circumstances of their life and situation
determined the object, as well as the degree, of their
devotion ; and, as long as their adoration was succes-
sively prostituted to a thousand deities, it was scarcely
possible that their hearts could be susceptible of a
very sincere or lively passion for any of them.
When Christianity appeared in the world, even these
faint and imperfect impressions had lost much of their
original power. Human reason, which, by its unas-
sisted strength, is incapable of perceiving the mysteries
of faith, had already obtained an easy triumph over the
folly of Paganism ; and, when Tertullian or Lactautius
employ their labours in exposing its falsehood and
extravagance, they are obliged to transcribe the elo-
quence of Cicero or the wit of Lucian. The contagion
of these sceptical writings had been diffused far beyond
the number of their readers. The fashion of incredu-
lity was communicated from the philosopher to the
man of pleasure or business, from the noble to the
plebeian, and from the master to the menial slave who
waited at his table, and who eagerly listened to the
freedom of his conversation. On public occasions the
philosophic part of mankind affected to treat with
respect and decency the religious institutions of their
country ; but their secret contempt penetrated through
the thin and awkward disguise ; and even the people,
when they discovered that their deities were rejected
and derided by those whose rank or understanding
they were accustomed to reverence, were filled with
doubts and apprehensions concerning the truth of
those doctrines to which they had yielded the most
implicit belief. The decline of ancient prejudice
64 THE DECLINE AND FALL
exposed a very numerous portion of human kind to
the danger of a painful and comfortless situation. A
state of scepticism and suspense may amuse a few
inquisitive minds. But the practice of superstition is
so congenial to the multitude that, if they are forcibly
awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasing
vision. Their love of the marvellous and supernatural,
their curiosity with regard to future events, and their
strong propensity to extend their hopes and fears
beyond the limits of the visible world, were the prin-
cipal causes which favoured the establishment of
Polytheism. So urgent on the vulgar is the necessity
of believing that the fall of any system of mythology
will most probably be succeeded by the introduction
of some other mode of superstition. Some deities of
a more recent and fashionable cast might soon have
occupied the deserted temples of Jupiter and Apollo,
if, in the decisive moment, the wisdom of Providence
had not interposed a genuine revelation, fitted to
inspire the most rational esteem and conviction, whilst,
at the same time, it was adorned with all that could
attract the curiosity, the wonder, and the veneration
of the people. In their actual disposition, as many
were almost disengaged from their artificial prejudices,
but equally susceptible and desirous of a devout attach-
ment ; an object much less deserving would have been
sufficient to fill the vacant place in their hearts, and
to gratify the uncertain eagerness of their passions.
Those who are inclined to pursue this reflection, instead
of viewing with astonishment the rapid progress of
Christianity, will perhaps be surprised that its success
was not stiil more rapid and still more universal.
It has been observed, with truth as well as propriety,
that the conquests of Rome prepared and facilitated
those of Christianity. In the second chapter of this
work we have attempted to explain in what manner
the most civilised provinces of Europe, Asia, and Africa
were united under the dominion of one sovereign, and
gradually connected by the most intimate ties of laws,
of manners, and of language. The Jews of Palestine,
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE Go
who had fondly expected a temporal deliverer_, gave
so cold a reception to tlie miracles of the divine prophet
that it was found unnecessary to publish^ or at least
to preserve, any Hebrew gospel."^ The authentic
histories of the actions of Christ were composed in the
Greek language, at a considerable distance from Jeru-
salem, and after the Gentile converts were grown
extremely numerous J^ As soon as those histories
were translated into the Latin tongue, they were per-
fectly intelligible to all the subjects of Rome, excepting
only to the peasants of Syria and Egypt, for whose
benefit particular versions were afterwards made. The
public highways, which had been constructed for the
use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the
Christian missionaries from Damascus to Corinth, and
from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain ; nor
did those spiritual conquerors encounter any of the
obstacles which usually retard or prevent the intro-
duction of a foreign religion into a distant country.
There is the strongest reason to believe that before
the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine, the faith of
Christ had been preached in every province, and in
all the great cities of the empire ; but the foundation
of the several congregations, the numbers of the faith-
ful who composed them, and their proportion to the
unbelieving multitude, are now buried in obscurity, or
disguised by fiction and declamation. Such imperfect
circumstances, however, as have reached our knowledge
concerning the increase of the Christian name in Asia
and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy, and in the West, we
shall now proceed to relate, without neglecting the
real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond the
frontiers of the Roman empire.
The rich provinces that extend from the Euphrates
''5 The modern critics are not disposed to believe what the
fathers almost unanimously assert, that St. Matthew composed
a Hebrew gospel, of which only the Greek translation is extant.
It seems, however, dangerous to reject their testimony.
78 Under the reigns of Nero and Domitian, and in the cities
of Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, and Ephesus.
VOL. II. C
66 THE DECLINE AND FALL
to the Ionian sea were the principal theatre on which
the apostle of the Gentiles displayed his zeal and piety.
The seeds of the g'ospel, which he had scattered in a
fertile soil, were diligently cultivated by his disciples ;
and it should seem that, during the two first centuries,
the most considerable body of Christians was contained
within those limits. Among the societies which were
instituted in Syria, none were more ancient or more
illustrious than those of Damascus, of Bercea or Aleppo,
and of Antioch. The prophetic introduction of the
Apocalypse has described and immortalised the seven
churches of Asia: — Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus,
Thyatira,'*^ Sardes, Laodicea, and Philadelphia ; and
their colonies were soon diffused over that populous
country. In a very early period, the islands of Cyprus
and Crete, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia,
gave a favourable reception to the new religion ; and
Christian republics were soon founded in the cities of
Corinth, of Sparta, and of Athens."^ The antiquity of
the Greek and Asiatic churches allowed a sufficient
space of time for their increase and multiplication, and
even the swarms of Gnostics and other heretics serve
to display the flourishing condition of the orthodox
church, since the appellation of heretics has always
been applied to the less numerous party. To these
domestic testimonies we may add the confession, the
complaints, and the apprehensions of the Gentiles
themselves. From the writings of Lucian, a philosopher
who had studied mankind, and who describes their
manners in the most lively colours, we may learn that,
uuder the reign of Commodus, his native country of
Pontus was filled with Epicureans and Christians."^
"^ The Alogians (Epiphanius de Hasres. 51) disputed the
genuineness of the Apocalypse, because the church of Thyatira
was not yet founded. Epiphanius, who allows the fact, extri-
cates himself from the difficulty by ingeniously supposing that
St. John wrote in the spirit of prophecy.
78 The epistles of Ignatius and Dionysius (ap. Euseb. iv. 23)
point out many churches in Asia and Greece. That of Athens
seems to have been one of the least flourishing.
7^ Christianity, however, must have been very unequally
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 07
^Vithin fourscore years after the death of Christ,^ the
humane Pliuy laments the magnitude of the evil which
he vainly attempted to eradicate. In his very curious
epistle to the emperor Trajan, he affirms that the
temples were almost deserted, that the sacred victims
scarcely found any purchasers, and that the super-
stition had not only infected the cities, but had even
spread itself into the villages and the open country of
Pontus and Bithynia.
Without descending into a minute scrutiny of the
expressions, or of the motives of those writers who
either celebrate or lament the progress of Christianity
in the East, it may in general be observed that none
of them have left us any grounds from whence a just
estimate might be formed of the real numbers of the
faithful in those provinces. One circumstance, how-
ever, has been fortunately preserved, which seems to
cast a more distinct light on this obscure but interesting
subject. Under the reign of Theodosius, after Chris-
tianity had enjoyed, during more than sixty years, the
sunshine of Imperial favour, the ancient and illustrious
church of Antioch consisted of one hundred thousand
persons, three thousand of whom were supported out
of the public oblations. The splendour and dignity
of the queen of the East, the acknowledged populous-
ness of Caesarea, Seleucia, and Alexandria, and the
destruction of two hundred and fifty thousai;d souls
in the earthquake which afflicted Antioch under the
elder Justin,*^ are so many convincing proofs that the
whole number of its inhabitants was not less than half
a million, and that the Christians, however multiplied
by zeal and power, did not exceed a fifth part of that
great city. How different a proportion must we adopt
diffused over Pontus ; since in the middle of the third century
there were no more than seventeen believers in the extensive
diocese of Neo-Caesarea.
8<J According to the ancients, Jesus Christ suffered imder the
consulship of the two Gemini, in the year 29 of our present aera,
Pliny was sent into Bithynia (according to Pagi) in the year no.
81 John Malala, torn. ii. p. 144. He draws the same ^conclu-
sion with regard to the populousness of Antioch.
68 THE DECLINE AND FALL
when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant
church, the AFest with the East, remote villages with
populous towns, and countries recently converted to
the faith with the place where the believers first re-
ceived the appellation of Christians ! It must not,
however, be dissembled that, in another passage,
Chrysostom, to whom we are indebted for this useful
information, computes the multitude of the faithful as
even superior to that of the Jews and Pagans. But
the solution of this apparent difficulty is easy and
obvious. The eloquent preacher draws a parallel be-
tween the civil and the ecclesiastical constitution of
Antioch ; between the list of Christians who had ac-
quired Heaven by baptism and the list of citizens who
had a right to share the public liberality. Slaves,
strangers, and infants were comprised in the former ;
they were excluded from the latter.
The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its
proximity to Palestine, gave an easy entrance to the
new religion. It was at first embraced by great
numbers of the Therapeutfe, or Essenians of the lake
Mareotis, a Jewish sect which had abated much of its
reverence for the Mosaic ceremonies. The austere life
of the Essenians, their fasts and excommunications,
the community of goods, the love of celibacy, their
zeal for martyrdom, and the warmth though not the
purity of their faith, already offered a very lively image
of the primitive disciplined'^ It was in the school of
Alexandria that the Christian theology appears to have
assumed a regular and scientifical form ; and, when
Hadrian visited Egypt, he found a church, composed
82 Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. 2, c. 20, 21, 22, 23, has ex-
amined, with the most critical accuracy, the curious treatise of
Philo which describes the Therapeutae. By proving that it
was composed as early as the time of Augustus, Basnage has
demonstrated, in spite of Eusebius (1. ii. c. 17), and a crowd
of modern Catholics, that the Therapeutae were neither Chris-
tians nor monks. It still remains probable that they changed
their name, preserved their manners, adopted some new articles
of faith, and gradually became the fathers of the Egyptian
Ascetics.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 69
of Jews and of Greeks, sufficiently important to attract
the notice of that inquisitive prince.*^ But the pro-
gress of Christianity was for a long time confined
within the limits of a single city, which was itself a
foreign colony^, and, till the close of the second cen-
tury, the predecessors of Demetrius were the only
prelates of the Egyptian church. Three bishops were
consecrated by the hands of Demetrius, and the number
was increased to twenty by his successor Heraclas,^^
The body of the natives, a people distinguished by
a sullen inflexibility of temper, entertained the new
doctrine with coldness and reluctance ; and even in
the time of Origen it was rare to meet with an Egyptian
who had surmounted his early prejudices in favour of
the sacred animals of his country. As soon, indeed,
as Christianity ascended the throne, the zeal of those
barbarians obeyed the prevailing impulsion ; the cities
of Egypt were filled with bishops, and the deserts of
Thebais swarmed with hermits.
A perpetual stream of strangers and provincials
flowed into the capacious bosom of Rome. Whatever
was strange or odious, whoever was guilty or suspected,
might hope, in the obscurity of that immense capital,
to elude the vigilance of the law. In such a various
conflux of nations, every teacher, either of truth or of
falsehood, every founder, whether of a virtuous or a
criminal association, might easily multiply his disciples
or accomplices. The Christians of Rome, at the time
of the accidental persecution of Nero, are represented
by Tacitus as already amounting to a very great multi-
tude, and the language of that great historian is almost
similar to the style employed by Livy, when he relates
the introduction and the suppression of the rites of
83 See a letter of Hadrian, in the Augustan History, p. 245.
8^ For the succession of Alexandrian bishops, consult Re-
naudot's History, p. 24, &c. This curious fact is preserved by
the patriarch Eutychius (Annal. torn. i. p. 334, Vers. Pocock),
and its internal evidence would alone be a sufficient answer to
all the objections which Bishop Pearnos has urged in the Vin-
diciae Ignatianae.
70 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Bacchus. After the Bacchanals had awakened the
severity of the senate, it was likewise apprehended that
a very great multitude, as it were another people, had
been initiated into those abhorred mysteries. A more
careful inquiry soon demonstrated that the offenders
did not exceed seven thousand ; a number, indeed,
sufficiently alarming, when considered as the object of
public justice. ^^ It is with the same candid allowance
that we should interpret the vague expressions of
Tacitus, and in a former instance of Pliny, when they
exaggerate the crowds of deluded fanatics who had
forsaken the established worship of the gods. The
church of Rome was undoubtedly the first and most
populous of the empire ; and we are possessed of an
authentic record which attests the state of religion in
that city, about the middle of the third century, and
after a peace of thirty-eight years. The clergy, at that
time, consisted of a bishop, forty-six presbyters, seven
deacons, as many sub-deacons, forty- two acolytes, and
fifty readers, exorcists, and porters. The number of
widows, of the infirm, and of the poor, who were
maintained by the oblations of the faithful, amounted
to fifteen hundred. From reason, as well as from the
analogy of Antioch, we may venture to estimate the
Christians of Rome at about fifty thousand. The
populousness of that great capital cannot, perhaps, be
exactly ascertained ; but the most modest calculation
will not surely reduce it lower than a million of inhabi-
tants, of whom the Christians might constitute at the
most a twentieth part.^^
The western provincials appeared to have derived
the knowledge of Christianity from the same source
85 T. Liv. xxxix. 13, 15, 16, 17. Nothing could exceed the
horror and consternation of the senate on the discovery of the
Bacchanalians, whosede pravity is described, and perhaps ex-
aggerated, by Livy.
86 This proportion of the presbyters and of the poor to the
rest of the people was originally fixed by Burnet (Travels into
Italy, p. 168), and is approved by Moyle (vol. ii. p. 151). They
were both unacquainted with the passage of Chrysostom, which
converts their conjecture almost into a fact.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 71
which had diffused among them the language, the
sentiments, and the manners of Rome. In this more
important circumstance, Africa, as well as Gaul, was
gradually fashioned to the imitation of the capital.
Yet, notwithstanding the many favourable occasions
which might invite the Roman missionaries to visit
their Latin provinces, it was late before they passed
either the sea or the Alps f' nor can we discover in
those great countries any assured traces either of faith
or of persecution that ascend higher than the reign of
the Antonines.^ The slow progress of the gospel in
the cold climate of Gaul was extremely different from
the eagerness with which it seems to have been received
on the burning sands of Africa. The African Christians
soon formed one of the principal members of the
primitive church. The practice introduced into that
province of appointing bishops to the most inconsider-
able towns, and very frequently to the most obscure
villages, contributed to multiply the splendour and
importance of their religious societies, which during
the course of the third century were animated by the
zeal of Tertullian, directed by the abilities of Cyprian,
and adorned by the eloquence of Lactantius. But if,
on the contrary, we turn our eyes towards Gaul, we
must content ourselves with discovering, in the time
of Marcus Antoninus, the feeble and united congrega-
tions of Lyons and Vienna ; and, even as late as the
reign of Decius, we are assured that in a few cities
only, Aries, Narbonne, Toulouse, Limoges, Clermont,
Tours, and Paris, some scattered churches were sup-
ported by the devotion of a small number of Christians.^
87 According to the Donatists, whose assertion is confirmed by
the tacit acknowledgment of Augustin, Africa was the last of
the provinces which received the gospel.
88 It is imagined that the Scyliitan martyrs were the first
(Acta Sincera Ruinart. p. 34). One of the adversaries of
Apuleius seems to have been a Christian. Apolog. pp. 496, 497,
edit. Delphin.
89 There is some reason to believe that, in the beginning of
the fourth century, the extensive dioceses of Liege, of Treves,
and of Cologne composed a single bishopric, which had been
72 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Silence is indeed very consistent with devotion, but,
as it is seldom compatible with zeal, we may perceive
and lament the languid state of Christianity in those
provinces which had exchanged the Celtic for the
Latin tongue ; since they did not, during the three
first centuries, give birth to a single ecclesiastical
writer. From Gaul, which claimed a just pre-eminence
of learning and authority over all the countries on this
side of the Alps, the light of the gospel was more
faintly reflected on the remote provinces of Spain and
Britain ; and, if we may credit the vehement assertions
of Tertullian, they had already received the first rays
of the faith when he addressed his apology to the
magistrates of the emperor Severus.^'^ But the obscure
and imperfect origin of the western churches of Europe
has been so negligently recorded that, if we would
relate the time and manner of their foundation, we
must supply the silence of antiquity by those legends
which avarice or superstition long afterwards dictated
to the monks in the lazy gloom of their convents. ^^
Of these holy romances, that of the apostle St. James
can alone, by its single extravagance, deserve to be
mentioned. From a peaceful fisherman of the lake of
Gennesareth, he was transformed into a valorous knight,
who charged at the head of the Spanish chivalry in
their battles against the Moors. The gravest historians
have celebrated his exploits ; the miraculous shrine of
Compostella displayed his power ; and the sword of a
military order, assisted by the terrors of the Inquisition,
was sufficient to remove every objection of profane
criticism.^-
very recently founded. See M^moires de Tillemont, torn. vi.
part i, pp. 43, 411.
90 The date of TertuUian's Apology is fixed, in a dissertation
of Mosheim, to the year 198.
91 In the fifteenth century, there were few who had either
inclination or courage to question, whether Joseph of Arimathea
founded the monastery of Glastonbury, and whether Dionysius
the Areopagite preferred the residence of Paris to that of Athens.
92 The stupendous metamorphosis was performed in the
ninth century.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 73
The progress of Christianity was not confined to
the Roman empire ; and, according to the primitive
fathers, who interpret facts by prophecy, the new
religion within a century after the death of its divine
author, had already visited every part of the globe.
•^ There exists not,'^ says Justin Martyr, "a people,
whether Greek or barbarian, or any other race of men,
by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be
distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture,
whether they dwell under tents, or wander about in
covered waggons, among whom prayers are not offered
up in the name of a crucified Jesus to the Father and
Creator of all things." But this splendid exaggera-
tion, which even at present it would be extremely
difficult to reconcile with the real state of mankind,
can be considered only as the rash sally of a devout
but careless writer, the measure of whose belief was
regulated by that of his wishes. But neither the
belief nor the wishes of the fathers can alter the truth
of history. It will still remain an undoubted fact,
that the barbarians of Scythia and Germany who after-
wards subverted the Roman monarchy were involved
in the darkness of paganism ; and that even the con-
version of Iberia, of Armenia, or of -Ethiopia, was not
attempted with any degree of success till the sceptre
was in the hands of an orthodox emperor.^^ Before
that time the various accidents of war and commerce
might indeed diffuse an imperfect knowledge of the
gospel among the tribes of Caledonia, ^^ and among
the borderers of the Rhine, the Danube, and the
93 See the fourth century of Mosheim's History of the Church.
Many, though very confused circumstances, that relate to the
conversion of Iberia and Armenia, may be found in Moses of
Chorene, 1. ii. c. 78-89.
9-1 According to Tertullian, the Christian faith had penetrated
into parts of Britain inaccessible to the Roman arms. About a
century afterwards, Ossian, the son of Fingal, is said to have
disputed, in his extreme old age, with one of the foreign mis-
sionaries, and the dispute is still extant, in verse, and in the Erse
language.
VOL. u. c 2
74 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Euphrates.^" Beyond the last-mentioned river, Edessa
was distinguished by a firm and early adherence to
the faith. ^ From Edessa the principles of Christianity
were easily introduced into the Greek and Syrian cities
which obeyed the successors of Artaxerxes ; but they
do not appear to have made any deep impression on
the minds of the Persians, whose religious system, by
the labours of a well-disciplined order of priests, had
been constructed with much more art and solidity than
the uncertain mythology of Greece and Rome.^^
From this impartial, though imperfect, survey of
the progress of Christianity, it may, perhaps, seem
probable that the number of its proselytes has been
excessively magnified by fear on the one side and by
devotion on the other. According to the irreproach-
able testimony of Origen, the proportion of the faith-
ful was very inconsiderable when compared with the
multitude of an unbelieving world ; but, as we are
left without any distinct information, it is impossible
to determine, and it is diflficult even to conjecture, the
real numbers of the primitive Christians. The most
favourable calculation, however, that can be deduced
from the examples of Antioch and of Rome will not
permit us to imagine that more than a twentieth part
of the subjects of the empire had enlisted themselves
under the banner of the cross before the important
conversion of Constantino. But their habits of faith,
of zeal, and of union seemed to multiply their numbers;
and the same causes which contributed to their future
95 The Goths, who ravaged Asia in the reign of Gallienus,
carried away great numbers of captives ; some of whom were
Christians, and became missionaries.
^ The legend of Abgarus, fabulous as it is, affords a decisive
proof that, many years before Eusebius wrote his history, the
greatest part of the inhabitants of Edessa had embraced Chris-
tianity. Their rivals, the citizens of Carrhae, adhered, on the
contrary, to the cause of Paganism, as late as the sixth century.
^ According to Bardesanes (ap. Euseb. Praepar. Evangel.),
there were some Christians in Persia before the end of the
second century. In the time of Constantine they composed a
flourishing church.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 75
increase served to render their actual strength more
apparent and more formidable.
Such is the constitution of civil society that, whilst
a few persons are distinguished by riches^ by honours,
and by knowledge, the body of the people is condemned
to obscurity, ignorance, and poverty. The Christian
religion, which addressed itself to the whole human
race, must consequently collect a far greater number
of proselytes from the lower than from the superior
ranks of life. This innocent and natural circumstance
has been improved into a very odious imputation,
which seems to be less strenuously denied by the
apologists than it is urged by the adversaries of the
faith ; that the new sect of Christians was almost
entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of
peasants and mechanics, of boys and women, of beggars
and slaves ; the last of whom might sometimes intro-
duce the missionaries into the rich and noble families
to which they belonged. These obscure teachers
(such was the charge of malice and infidelity) are as
mute in public as they are loquacious and dogmatical
in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid the danger-
ous encounter of philosophers, they mingle with the
rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves
into those minds, whom their age, their sex, or their
education has the best disposed to receive the impres-
sion of superstitious terrors.
This unfavourable picture, though not devoid of a
faint resemblance, betrays, by its dark colouring and
distorted features, the pencil of an enemy. As the
humble faith of Christ diffused itself through the
world, it was embraced by several persons who derived
some consequence from the advantages of nature or
fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent apology
to the emperor Hadrian, was an Athenian philosopher.
Justin Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the
schools of Zeno, of Aristotle, of Pythagoras, and of
Plato, before he fortunately was accosted by the old
man, or rather the angel, who turned his attention
to the study of the Jewish prophets. Clemens of
76 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Alexandria had acquired much various reading in the
Greek, and Tertullian in the Latin, language. Julius
Africanus and Origen possessed a very considerable
share of the learning of their times ; and, although
the style of Cyprian is very different from that of
Lactantius, we might almost discover that both those
writers had been public teachers of rhetoric. Even
the study of philosophy was at length introduced
among the Christians, but it was not always productive
of the most salutary effects ; knowledge was as often
the parent of heresy as of devotion, and the description
which was designed for the followers of Artemon may,
with equal propriety, be applied to the various sects
that resisted the successors of the apostles. " They
presume to alter the holy scriptures, to abandon the
ancient rule of faith, and to form their opinions accor-
ding to the subtile precepts of logic. The science of
the church is neglected for the study of geometry, and
they lose sight of Heaven while they are employed in
measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their
hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus are the objects of
their admiration ; and they express an uncommon
reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are
derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the
infidels, and they corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel
by the refinements of human reason." ^^
Nor can it be affirmed with truth that the advantages
of birth and fortune were always separated from the
profession of Christianity. Several Roman citizens
were brought before the tribunal of Pliny, and he soon
discovered that a great number of persons of every
order of men in Bithynia had deserted the religion of
their ancestors. His unsuspected testimony may, in
this instance, obtain more credit than the bold chal-
lenge of Tertullian, when he addresses himself to the
fears as well as to the humanity of the proconsul of
Africa, by assuring him that, if he persists in his cruel
88 It may be hoped that none, except the heretics, gave oc-
casion to the complaint of Celus that the Christians were per-
petually correcting and altering their Gospels.
OF THE r.OMAN EMPIRE 77
intentions, he must decimate Carthage, and that he
will find among the guilty many persons of his own
rank, senators and matrons of nohlest extraction, and
the friends or relations of his most intimate friends.
It appears, however, that about forty years afterwards
the emperor Valerian was persuaded of the truth of
this assertion, since in one of his rescripts he evidently
supposes that senators, Roman knights, and ladies
of quality were engaged in the Christian sect The
church still continued to increase its outward splen-
dour as it lost its internal purity ; and in the reign of
Diocletian the palace, the courts of justice, and even
the army concealed a multitude of Christians who en-
deavoured to reconcile the interests of the present
with those of a future life.
And yet these exceptions are either too few in
number, or too recent in time, entirely to remove
the imputation of ignorance and obscurity which has
been so arrogantly cast on the first proselytes of
Christianity. Instead of employing in our defence
the fictions of later ages, it will be more prudent to
convert the occasion of scandal into a subject of edi-
fication. Our serious thoughts will suggest to us that
the apostles themselves were chosen by providence
among the fishermen of Galilee, and that, the lower we
depress the temporal condition of the first Christians,
the more reason we shall find to admire their merit
and success. It is incumbent on us diligently to re-
member that the kingdom of heaven was promised to
the poor in spirit, and that minds aflSicted by calamity
and the contempt of mankind cheerfully listen to the
divine promise of future happiness ; while, on the con-
trary, the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of
this world ; and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute
their vain superiority of reason and knowledge.
We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us
for the loss of some illustrious characters, which in
our eyes might have seemed the most worthy of the
heavenly present. The names of Seneca, of the elder
and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of
78 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Galen^ of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor
Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they
flourished_, and exalt the dignity of human nature.
They filled with glory their respective stations, either
in active or contemplative life ; their excellent under-
standings were improved by study ; Philosophy had
purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular
superstition ; and their days were spent in the pursuit
of truth and the practice of virtue. Yet all these sages
(it is no less an object of surprise than of concern)
overlooked or rejected the perfection of the Christian
system. Their language or their silence equally dis-
cover their contempt for the growing sect, which in
their time had diffused itself over the Roman empire.
Those among them who condescend to mention the
Christians consider them only as obstinate and perverse
enthusiasts, who exacted an implicit submission to
their mysterious doctrines, without being able to pro-
duce a single argument that could engage the attention
of men of sense and learning.^
It is at least doubtful whether any of these philo-
sophers perused the apologies which the primitive
Christians repeatedly published in behalf of themselves
and of their religion ; but it is much to be lamented
that such a cause was not defended by abler advocates.
Tliey expose with superfluous wit and eloquence the
extravagance of Polytheism. They interest our com-
passion by displaying the innocence and sufferings of
their injured brethren. But, when they would demon-
strate the divine origin of Christianity, they insist
much more strongly on the predictions which an-
nounced, than on the miracles which accompanied,
the appearance of the Messiah. Their favourite argu-
ment might serve to edify a Christian or to convert
9^ Dr. Lardner, in his first and second volume of Jewish and
Christian testimonies, collects and illustrates those of Pliny the
younger, of Tacitus, of Galen, of Marcus Antoninus, and per-
haps of Epictetus (for it is doubtful whether that philosopher
means to speak of the Christians). The new sect is totally un-
noticed by Seneca, the elder Pliny, and Plutarch.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 79
a Jew, since both the one and the other acknowledge
the authority of those prophecies, and both are
obliged, with devout reverence, to search for their
sense and their accomplishment. But this mode of
persuasion loses much of its weight and influence,
when it is addressed to those who neither understand
nor respect the Mosaic dispensation and the prophetic
style. In the unskilful hands of Justin and of the suc-
ceeding apologists, the sublime meaning of the Hebrew
oracles evaporates in distant types, affected conceits,
and cold allegories ; and even their authenticity was
rendered suspicious to an unenlightened Gentile by
the mixture of pious forgeries, which, under the names
of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sibyls, ^'^ were obtruded
on him as of equal value with the genuine inspirations
of Heaven. The adoption of fraud and sophistry in
the defence of revelation too often remir''^ us of the
injudicious conduct of those poets who load their
invulnerable heroes with a useless weight of cumber-
some and brittle armour.
But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of
the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences
which were presented by the hand of Omnipotence,
not to their reason, but to their senses } During the
age of Christ, of his apostles, and of their first disciples,
the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by
innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind
saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised,
daemons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were
frequently suspended for the benefit of the church.
But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from
the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupa-
tions of life and study, appeared unconscious of any
100 The Philosophers, who derided the more ancient predic-
tions of the Sibyls, would easily have detected the Jewish and
Christian forgeries, which have been so triumphantly quoted
by the fathers, from Justin Martyr to Lactantius. When the
Sibylline verses had performed their appointed task, they, like
the system of the millennium, were quietly laid aside. The
Christian Sibyl had unluckily fixed the ruin of Rome for the
year 195, A.u.c. 948.
80 THE DECLINE AND FALL
alterations in the moral or physical government of the
world. Under the reign of TiberiuS;, the whole earth, ^*^^
or at least a celebrated province of the Roman empire,
was involved in a praeternatural darkness of three
hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to
have excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion
of mankind, passed without notice in an age of science
and history.^02 j^ happened during the lifetime of
Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced
the immediate effects, or received the earliest intelli-
gence, of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in a
laborious work, has recorded all the great phenomena
of Nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses,
which his indefatigable curiosity could collect. Both
the one and the other have omitted to mention the
greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been
witness since the creation of the globe. A distinct
chapter of Pliny is designed for eclipses of an extra-
ordinary nature and unusual duration ; but he contents
himself with describing the singular defect of light
which followed the murder of Caesar, when, during the
greatest part of the year, the orb of the sun appeared
pale and without splendour. This season of obscurity,
which cannot surely be compared with the praeter-
natural darkness of the Passion, had been already
celebrated by most of the poets and historians of that
memorable age.
^01 The fathers, as they are drawn out in battle array by Dom
Calmet (Dissertations sur la Bible, torn. iii. pp. 295-308), seem
to cover the whole earth with darkness, in which they are
followed by most of the moderns.
i<^ The celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely aban-
doned. When TertuUian assures the Pagans that the mention
of the prodigy is found in Arcanis (not Archivis) vestris (see his
Apology, c. 21), he probably appeals to the Sibylline verses,
which relate it exactly in the words of the gospel.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 81
CHAPTER XVI
THE CONDUCT OF THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT TOWARDS
THE CHRISTIANS, FROM THE REIGN OF NERO TO
THAT OF CONSTANTINE
If we seriously consider the purity of the Christian re-
ligion, the sanctity of its moral precepts, and the inno-
cent as well as austere lives of the greater number of those
who, during the first ages, embraced the faith of the
gospel, we should naturally suppose that so benevolent a
doctrine would have been received with due reverence,
even by the unbelieving world ; that the learned and
the polite, however they might deride the miracles,
would have esteemed the virtues of the new sect ; and
that the magistrates, instead of persecuting, would
have protected an order of men who yielded the most
passive obedience to the laws, though they declined
the active cares of war and government. If, on the
other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of
Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the
faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers,
and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we
are at a loss to discover what new offence the Christians
had committed, what new provocation could exasperate
the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new
motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld,
without concern, a thousand forms of religion subsist-
ing in peace under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe
punishment on any part of their subjects, who had
chosen for themselves a singular, but an inoffensive,
mode of faith and worship.
The religious policy of the ancient world seems to
have assumed a more stern and intolerant character,
to oppose the progress of Christianity. About four-
82 THE DECLINE AND FALL
score years after the death of Christy his innocent
disciples were punished with death, by the sentence of
a proconsul of the most amiable and philosophic char-
acter, and, according to the laws of an emperor, dis-
tinguished by the wisdom and justice of his general
administration. The apologies which were repeatedly
addressed to the successors of Trajan, are filled with
the most pathetic complaints, that the Christians, who
obeyed the dictates, and solicited the liberty, of
conscience, were alone, among all the subjects of the
Roman empire, excluded from the common benefits of
their auspicious government. The deaths of a few
eminent martyrs have been recorded with care ; and
from the time that Christianity was invested with the
supreme power, the governors of the church have been
no less diligently employed in displaying the cruelty,
than in imitating the conduct, of their Pagan adver-
saries. To separate (if it be possible) a few authentic,
as well as interesting, facts, from an undigested mass
of fiction and error, and to relate, in a clear and
rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration,
and the most important circumstances of the persecu-
tions to which the first Christians w^ere exposed, is the
design of the present Chapter.
The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by
fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated
by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of mind
calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate, the
motives of their enemies, which often escape the
impartial and discerning view even of those who are
placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecu-
tion. A reason has been assigned for the conduct of
the emperors towards the primitive Christians, which
may appear the more specious and probable as it is
drawn from the acknowledged genius of Polytheism.
It has already been observed that the religious con-
cord of the world was principally supported by the
implicit assent and reverence which the nations of
antiquity expressed for their respective traditions and
ceremonies. It might therefore be expected that they
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 83
would unite with indignation against any sect of people
which should separate itself from the communion of
mankind, and, claiming the exclusive possession of
divine knowledge, should :disclain every form of worship,
except its own, as impious and idolatrous. The rights
of toleration were held by mutual indulgence ; they
were justly forfeited by a refusal of the accustomed
tribute. As the payment of this tribute was inflexibly
refused by the Jews, and by them alone, the considera-
tion of the treatment which they experienced from the
Roman magistrates will serve to explain how far these
speculations are justified by facts, and will lead us
to discover the true causes of the persecution of
Christianity.
Without repeating what has been already mentioned
of the reverence of the Roman princes and governors
for the temple of Jerusalem, we shall only observe that
the destruction of the temple and city was accompanied
and followed by every circumstance that could ex-
asperate the minds of the conquerors, and authorise
religious persecution by the most specious arguments
of political justice and the public safety. From the
reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews
discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of
Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious
massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at
the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed
in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where
they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the un-
suspecting natives ; ^ and we are tempted to applaud
the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms
of the legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and
credulous superstition seemed to render them the
implacable enemies not only of the Roman government,
1 In Cyrene they massacred 220,000 Greeks ; in Cyprus,
240,000 ; in Egypt, a very great multitude. Many of these
unhappy victims were sawed asunder, according to a precedent
to which David had given the sanction of his example. The
victorious Jews devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and
twisted the entrails like a girdle round their bodies.
84 THE DECLINE AND FALL
but of human kind.^ The enthusiasm of the Jews was
supported by the opinion that it was unlawful for them
to pay taxes to an idolatrous master ; and by the
flattering promise which they derived from their
ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah would soon
arise, destined to break their fetters and to invest the
favourites of heaven with the empire of the earth. It
was by announcing himself as their long-expected
deliverer, and by calling on all the descendants of
Abraham to assert the hope of Israel, that the famous
Barchochebas collected a formidable army, with which
he resisted, during two years, the power of the
emperor Hadrian.
Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the
resentment of the Roman princes expired after the
victory ; nor were their apprehensions continued be-
yond the period of war and danger. By the general
indulgence of polytheism, and by the mild temper of
Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient
privileges, and once more obtained the permission of
circumcising their children, with the easy restraint
that they should never confer on any foreign proselyte
that distinguishing mark of the Hebrew race. The
numerous remains of that people, though they were
still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were
f>ermitted to form and to maintain considerable estab-
ishments both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire
the freedom of Rome, to enjoy municipal honours, and
to obtain, at the same time, an exemption from the
burdensome and expensive offices of society. The
moderation or the contempt of the Romans gave a
legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police which
was instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch,
who had fixed his residence at Tiberias, was empowered
to appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles, to
2 Without repeating the well-known narratives of Josephus,
we may learn from Dion (1. Ixix. p. 1162) that in Hadrian's
war 580,000 Jews were cut off by the sword, besides an
infinite number which perished by famine, by disease, and by
fire.
OF] THE ROMAN EMPIRE 85
exercise a domestic jurisdiction, and to receive from
his dispersed brethren an annual contribution. ^ New
synagogues were frequently erected in the principal
cities of the empire ; and the sabbaths, the fasts, and
the festivals, which were either commanded by the
Mosaic law or enjoined by the traditions of the Rabbis,
were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner.*
Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stem
temper of the Jews. Awakened from their dream of
prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour
of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irre-
concileable hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out
in acts of blood and violence, evaporated in less
dangerous gratifications. They embraced every oppor-
tunity of over-reaching the idolaters in trade ; and
they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations
against the haughty kingdom of Edom.°
Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the
deities adored by their sovereign and by their fellow-
subjects, enjoyed, however, the free exercise of their
unsocial religion ; there must have existed some other
cause, which exposed the disciples of Christ to those
severities from which the posterity of Abraham was
exempt The diiference between them is simple and
obvious ; but, according to the sentiments of antiquity,
it was of the highest importance. The Jews were a
nation ; the Christians were a sect ; and, if it was
natural for every community to respect the sacred
institutions of their neighbours, it was incumbent on
5 The office of Patriarch was suppressed by Theodosius the
younger.
4 We need only mention the piorim, or deliverance of the
Jews from the rage of Haman, which, till the reign of Theo-
dosius, was celebrated with insolent triumph and riotous in-
temperance.
5 According to the false Josephus, Tsepho, the grandson of
Esau, conducted into Italy the army of ^neas, king of Carthage.
Another colony of Idumasans, flying from the sword of David,
took refuge in the dominions of Romulus. For these, or for
other reasons of equal weight, the name of Edom was applied
by the Jews to the Roman empire.
86 THE DECLINE AND FALL
them to persevere in those of their ancestors. The
voice of oracles, the precepts of philosophers and the
authority of the laws unanimously enforced this national
obligation. By their lofty claim of superior sanctity,
the Jews might provoke the Polytheists to consider
them as an odious and impure race. By disdaining
the intercourse of other nations they might deserve
their contempt. The laws of Moses might be for the
most part frivolous or absurd ; yet, since they had
been received during many ages by a large society,
his followers were justified by the example of mankind ;
and it was universally acknowledged that they had a
right to practise what it would have been criminal in
them to neglect. But this principle which protected
the Jewish synagogue afforded not any favour or
security to the primitive church. By embracing the
faith of the Gospel, the Christians incurred the sup-
posed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable offence.
They dissolved the sacred ties of custom and education,
violated the religious institutions of their country,
and presumptuously despised whatever their fathers
had believed as true, or had reverenced as sacred.
Nor was this apostacy (if we may use the expression)
merely of a partial or local kind ; since the pious
deserter who withdrew himself from the temples of
Egypt or Syria would equally disdain to seek an asylum
in those of Athens or Carthage. Every Christian re-
jected with contempt the superstitions of his family,
his city, and his province. The whole body of Chris-
tians unanimously refused to hold any communion
with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of mankind.
It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the
inalienable rights of conscience and private judgment.
Though his situation might excite the pity, his argu-
ments could never reach the understanding, either of
the philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan
world. To their apprehensions, it was no less a matter
of surprise that any individuals should entertain
scruples against complying with the established mode
of worship, than if they had conceived a sudden abhor-
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 87
rence to the manners, the dress, or the language of
their native country.^
The surprise of the Pagans was soon succeeded by
resentment ; and the most pious of men were exposed
to the unjust but dangerous imputation of impiety.
Malice and prejudice concurred in representing the
Christians as a society of atheists, who, by the most
daring attack on the religious constitution of the
empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the
civil magistrate. They had separated themselves (they
gloried in the confession) from every mode of super-
stition which was received in any part of the globe
by the various temper of polytheism ; but it was not
altogether so evident what deity or what form of
worship they had substituted to the gods and temples
of antiquity. The pure and sublime idea which they
entertained of the Supreme Being escaped the gross
conception of the Pagan multitude, who were at a loss
to discover a spiritual and solitary God, that was
neither represented under any corporeal figure or
visible symbol, nor was adored with the accustomed
pomp of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices.
The sages of Greece and Rome, who had elevated their
minds to the contemplation of the existence and attri-
butes of the First Cause, were induced, by reason or
by vanity, to reserve for themselves and their chosen
disciples the privilege of this philosophical devotion."
They were far from admitting the prejudices of man-
kind as the standard of truth ; but they considered
them as flowing from the original disposition of human
nature ; and they supposed that any popular mode of
faith and worship which presumed to disclaim the
assistance of the senses would, in proportion as it
receded from superstition, find itself incapable of
restraining the wanderings of the fancy and the visions
8 From the arguments of Celsus, as they are represented and
refuted by Origen, we may clearly discover the distinction that
was made between the Jewish people and the Christian sect.
7 It is difficult (says Plato) to attain, and dangerous to pub-
lish, the knowledge of the true God.
88 THE DECLINE AND FALL
of fanaticism. The careless glance Avhich men of wit
and learning- condescended to cast on the Christian
revelation served only to confirm their hasty opinion,
and to persuade them that the principle, which they
might have revered, of the divine unity was defaced
by the wild enthusiasm, and annihilated by the airy
speculations, of the new sectaries. The author of a
celebrated dialogue which has been attributed to
Lucian, whilst he affects to treat the mysterious sub-
ject of the Trinity in a style of ridicule and contempt,
betrays his own ignorance of the weakness of human
reason, and of the inscrutable nature of the divine
perfections.
It might appear less surprising that the founder of
Christianity should not only be revered by his disciples
as a sage and a prophet, but that he should be adored
as a God. The Polytheists were disposed to adopt
every article of faith which seemed to oiFer any re-
semblance, however distant or imperfect, with the
popular mythology ; and the legends of Bacchus, of
Hercules, and of ^sculapius had, in some measure,
prepared their imagination for the appearance of the
Son of God under a human forra.^ But they were
astonished that the Christians should abandon the
temples of those ancient heroes who, in the infancy of
the world, had invented arts, instituted laws, and
vanquished the tyrants or monsters who infested the
earth ; in order to choose, for the exclusive object of
their religious worship, an obscure teacher who, in a
recent age, and among a barbarous people, had fallen
a sacrifice either to the malice of his own countrymen
or to the jealousy of the Roman government. The
Pagan multitude, reserving their gratitude for temporal
benefits alone, rejected the inestimable present of life
and immortality which was offered to mankind by Jesus
8 According to Justin Martyr (Apolog. Major, c. 70-85), the
daemon, who had gained some imperfect knowledge of the
prophecies, purposely contrived this resemblance, which might
deter, though by different means, both the people and the
philosophers from embracing the faith of Christ.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 89
of Nazareth. His mild constancy in the midst of cruel
and voluntary sufferings, his universal benevolence,
and the sublime simplicity of his actions and character
were insufficient, in the opinion of those carnal men,
to compensate for the want of fame, of empire, and of
success ; and, whilst they refused to acknowledge his
stupendous triumph over the powers of darkness and
of the grave, they misrepresented, or they insulted,
the equivocal birth, wandering life, and ignominious
death of the divine Author of Christianity." ^
The personal guilt which every Christian had con-
tracted, in thus preferring his private sentiment to the
national religion, was aggravated, in a very high
degree, by the number and union of the criminals.
It is well known, and has been already observed, that
Roman policy viewed with the utmost jealousy and
distrust any association among its subjects ; and that
the privileges of private corporations, though formed
for the most harmless or beneficial purposes, were
bestowed with a very sparing hand.^*^ The religious
assemblies of the Christians, who had separated them-
selves from the public worship, appeared of a much
less innocent nature : they were illegal in their principle
and in their consequences might become dangerous ;
nor were the emperors conscious that they violated
the laws of justice, when, for the peace of society, they
prohibited those secret and sometimes nocturnal
meetings. ^1 The pious disobedience of the Christians
made their conduct, or perhaps their designs, appear
9 In the first and second books of Origen, Celsus treats the
birth and character of our Saviour with the most impious con-
tempt. The orator Libanius praises Porphyry and Julian for
confuting the folly of a sect which styled a dead man of Pales-
tine God, and the Son of God.
10 The emperor Trajan refused to incorporate a company of
150 firemen, for the use of the city of Nicomedia, He disliked
all associations.
11 The proconsul Pliny had published a general edict against
unlawful meetings. The prudence of the Christians suspended
their Agapae ; but it was impossible for them to omit the exzr-
cise of public worship. •
90 THE DECLINE AND FALL
in a much more serious and criminal lig-ht ; and the
Roman princes, who might perhaps have suffered them-
selves to be disarmed by a ready submission, deeming
their honour concerned in the execution of their
commands, sometimes attempted by rigorous punish-
ments to subdue this independent spirit, which boldly
acknowledged an authority superior to that of the
magistrate. The extent and duration of this spiritual
conspiracy seemed to render it every day more de-
serving of his animadversion. We have already seen
that the active and successful zeal of the Christians
had insensibly diffused them through every province
and almost every city of the empire. The new con-
verts seemed to renounce their family and country,
that they might connect themselves in an indissoluble
bond of union with a peculiar society, which every-
where assumed a different character from the rest of
mankind. Their gloomy and austere aspect, their
abhorrence of the common business and pleasures of
life, and their frequent predictions of impending
calamities,^^ inspired the Pagans with the apprehension
of some danger which would arise from the new sect,
the more alarming as it was the more obscure. "What-
ever," says Pliny, " may be the principle of their con-
duct, their inflexible obstinacy appeared deserving of
punishment."
The precautions with which the disciples of Christ
performed the offices of religionjwere at first dictated
by fear and necessity ; but they were continued from
choice. By imitating the awful secrecy which reigned
in the Eleusinian mysteries, the Christians had flattered
themselves that they should render their sacred insti-
tutions more respectable in the eyes of the Pagan
world. But the event, as it often happens to the
operations of subtile policy, deceived their wishes and
12 As the prophecies of the Antichrist, approaching conflagra-
tion, &c. , provoked those Pagans whom they did not convert,
they were mentioned with caution and reserve ; and the Mon-
tanists were censured for disclosing too freely the dangerous
secret. *
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 91
their expectations. It was concluded that they only
concealed what they would have blushed to disclose
Their mistaken prudence afforded an opportunity for
malice to invent^ and for suspicious credulity to believe,
the horrid tales which described the Christians as the
most wicked of human kind, who practised in their
dark recesses every abomination that a depraved fancy
could sug-g-est, and who solicited the favour of their
unknown God by the sacrifice of every moral virtue.
There were many who pretended to confess or to relate
the ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was as-
serted, " that a new-born infant, entirely covered over
with flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of
initiation, to the knife of the proselyte, who unknow-
ingly inflicted many a secret and mortal wound on the
innocent victim of his error ; that, as soon as the cruel
deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up the blood,
greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and
pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual
consciousness of guilt. It was as confidently affirmed
that this inhuman sacrifice was succeeded by a suitable
entertainment, in which intemperance served as a
provocative to brutal lust ; till, at the appointed
moment, the lights were suddenly extinguished, shame
was banished, nature was forgotten ; and, as accident
might direct, the darkness of the night was polluted
by the incestuous commerce of sisters and brothers,-
of sons and of mothers."
But the perusal of the ancient apologies was sufficient
to remove even the slightest suspicion from the mind
of a candid adversary. The Christians, with the in-
trepid security of innocence, appeal from the voice of
rumour to the equity of the magistrates. Tliey acknow-
ledge that, if any proof can be produced of the crimes
which calumny has imputed to them, they are worthy
of the most severe punishment. They provoke the
punishment, and they challenge the proof. At the
same time they urge, with equal truth and propriety,
that the charge is not less devoid of probability than
it is destitute of evidence ; they ask whether any one
92 THE DECLINE AND FALL
can seriously believe that the pure and holy precepts
of the Gospel, which so frequently restrains the use
of the most lawful enjoyments, should inculcate the
practice of the most abominable crimes ; that a large
society should resolve to dishonour itself in the eyes
of its own members ; and that a great number of
persons of either sex, and every age and character,
insensible to the fear of death or infamy, should con-
sent to violate those principles which nature and edu-
cation had imprinted most deeply in their minds. ^^
Nothing, it should seem, could weaken the force or
destroy the effect of so unanswerable a justification,
unless it were the injudicious conduct of the apologists
themselves, who betrayed the common cause of religion,
to gratify their devout hatred to the domestic enemies
of the church. It was sometimes faintly insinuated,
and sometimes boldly asserted, that the same bloody
sacrifices, and the same incestuous festivals, which
were so falsely ascribed to the orthodox believers, were
in reality celebrated by the Marcionites, by the Car-
pocratians, and by several other sects of the Gnostics,
who, notwithstanding they might deviate into the paths
of heresy, were still actuated by the sentiments of men,
and still governed by the precepts of Christianity.
Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon the
church by the schismatics who had departed from its
communion : ^^ and it was confessed on all sides that
the most scandalous licentiousness of manners pre-
vailed among great numbers of those who affected the
name of Christians. A Pagan magistrate, who pos-
1' In the persecution of Lyons, some Gentile slaves were com-
pelled, by the fear of tortures, to accuse their Christian master.
The church of Lyons, writing to their brethren of Asia, treat
the horrid charge with proper indignation and contempt.
!•* When Tertullian became a Montanist, he aspersed the
morals of the church which he had so resolutely defended.
"Sed majoris est Agape, quia per banc adolescentes tui cum
sororibus dormiunt, appendices scilicet gulae lascivia et luxuria."
The 35th canon of the council of lUiberis provides against the
scandals which too often polluted the vigils of the church, and
disgraced the Christian name in the eyes of unbelievers.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 93
sessed neither leisure nor abilities to discern the almost
imperceptible line which divides the orthodox faith
from heretical pravity^ might easily have imagined
that their mutual animosity had extorted the discovery
of their common guilt. It was fortunate for the repose,
or at least for the reputation, of the first Christians,
that the magistrates sometimes proceeded with more
temper and moderation than is usually consistent with
religious zeal, and that they reported, as the impartial
result of their judicial inquiry, that the sectaries who
had deserted the established worship appeared to them
sincere in their professions and blameless in their
manners ; however they might incur, by their absurd
and excessive superstition, the cens'ure of the laws.^^
History, which undertakes to record the transactions
of the past, for the instruction of future, ages, would
ill deserve that honourable office, if she condescended
to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the maxims
of persecution. It must, however, be acknowledged
that the conduct of the emperors who appeared the
least favourable to the primitive church is by no means
so criminal as that of modern sovereigns who have
employed the arm of violence and terror against the
religious opinions of any part of their subjects. From
their reflections, or even from their own feelings, a
Charles V. or a Louis XIV. might have acquired a just
knowledge of the rights of conscience, of the obligation
of faith, and of the innocence of error. But the
princes and magistrates of ancient Rome were strangers
to those principles which inspired and authorised the
inflexible obstinacy of the Christians in the cause of
truth, nor could they themselves discover in their
own breasts any motive which would have prompted
them to refuse a legal, and as it were a natural, sub-
mission to the sacred institutions of their country.
The same reason which contributes to alleviate the
guilt, must have tended to abate the rigour, of their
15 Tertullian (Apolog. c. 2) expatiates on the fair and honour-
able testimony of Pliny, with much reason, and some declama-
tion.
94 THE DECLINE AND FALL
persecutions. As tliey were actuated, not by the
furious zeal of bigots, but by the temperate policy of
legislators, contempt must often have relaxed, and
humanity must frequently have suspended, the execu-
tion of those laws which they enacted against the
humble and obscure followers of Christ. From the
general view of their character and motives we might
naturally conclude : I. That a considerable time elapsed
before they considered the new sectaries as an object
deserving of the attention of government. II. That,
in the conviction of any of their subjects who were
accused of so very singular a crime, they proceeded
with caution and reluctance. III. That they were
moderate in the use of punishments ; and IV^. That the
afflicted church enjoyed many intervals of peace and
tranquillity. Notwithstanding the careless indiffer-
ence which the most copious and the most minute of
the Pagan writers have shown to the affairs of the
Christians, ^^ it may still be in our power to confirm
each of these probable suppositions by the evidence of
authentic facts.
I. By the wise dispensation of Providence, a mys-
terious veil was cast over the infancy of the church,
which, till the faith of the Christians was matured and
their numbers were multiplied, served to protect them
not only from the malice, but even from the know-
ledge, of the Pagan world. The slow and gradual
abolition of the Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safe and
innocent disguise to the more early proselytes of the
Gospel. As they were far the greater part of the race
of Abraham, they were distinguished by the peculiar
mark of circumcision, offered up their devotions in the
Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, and
received both the Law and the Prophets as the genuine
inspirations of the Deity. The Gentile converts, who
16 In the various compilation of the Augustan History (a part
of which was composed under the reign of Constantine), there
are not six lines which relate to the Christians ; nor has the
diligence of Xiphilin discovered their name in the large history
of Dion Cassius.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 95
by a spiritual adoption had been associated to the hope
of Israel, were likewise confounded under the garb and
appearance of Jews/'' and, as the Polytheists paid less
reirard to articles of faith than to the external worship,
the new sect, which carefully concealed, or faintly
announced, its future greatness and ambition, was
permitted to shelter itself under the general toleration
which was granted to an ancient and celebrated people
in the Roman empire. It was not long, perhaps,
before the Jews themselves, animated with a fiercer
zeal and a more jealous faith, perceived the gradual
separation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine
of the synagogue; and they would gladly have ex-
tinguished the dangerous heresy in the blood of its
adherents. But the deciees of heaven had already
disarmed their malice ; and, though they might some-
times exert the licentious privilege of sedition, they
no longer possessed the administration of criminal
justice; nor did they find it easy to infuse into the
calm breast of a Roman magistrate the rancour of their
own zeal and prejudice. The provincial governors
declared themselves ready to listen to any accusation
that might afi'ect the public safety ; but, as soon as
they were informed that it was a question not of facts
but of words, a dispute relating only to the interpreta-
tion of tl>e Jewish laws and prophecies, they deemed it
unworthy of the majesty of Rome seriously to discuss
the obscure differences which might arise among a
barbarous and superstitious people. The innocence of
the first Christians was protected by ignorance and
contempt ; and the tribunal of the Pagan magistrate
often proved their most assured refuge against the
fury of the synagogue.^® If, indeed, we were disposed
to adopt the traditions of a too credulous antiquity,
^ 17 An obscure passage of Suetonius (in Claud, c. 25) may
seem to offer a proof how strangely the Jews and Christians of
Rome were confounded with each other.
^8 See in the xviiith and xxvth chapters of the Acts of the
Apostles, the behaviour of Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, and of
Festus, procurator of Judaea.
96 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
we might relate the distant peregrinations, the wonder-
ful achievements, and the various deaths, of the
twelve apostles ; but a more accurate inquiry will
induce us to doubt whether any of those persons who
had been witnesses to the miracles of Christ were per-
mitted, beyond the limits of Palestine, to seal with
their blood the truth of their testimony. ^^ From the
ordinary term of human life, it may very naturally be
presumed that most of them were deceased before the
discontent of the Jews broke out into that furious war
which was terminated only by the ruin of Jerusalem.
During a long period, from the death of Christ to that
memorable rebellion, we cannot discover any traces of
Roman intolerance, unless they are to be found in the
sudden, the transient, but the cruel persecution,
which was exercised by Nero against the Christians of
the capital, thirty-five years after the former, and only
two years before the latter of those great events. The
character of the philosophic historian, to whom we are
principally indebted for the knowledge of this singular
transaction, would alone be sufficient to recommend it
to our most attentive consideration.
In the tenth year of the reign of Nero, the capital
of the empire was afflicted by a fire which raged beyond
the memory or example of former ages. The monu-
ments of Grecian art and of Roman virtue, the trophies
of the Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy temples, and
the most splendid palaces were involved in one common
destruction. Of the fourteen regions or quarters into
which Rome was divided, four only subsisted entire,
three were levelled with the ground, and the remaining
seven, which had experienced the fury of the flames,
displayed a melancholy prospect of ruin and desolation.
The vigilance of government appears not to have
1* In the time of TertuUian and Clemens of Alexandria, the
glory of martyrdom was confined to St. Peter, St. Paul, and St.
James. It was gradually bestowed on the rest of the apostles,
by the more recent Greeks, who prudently selected for the
theatre of their preaching and sufferings, some remote country
beyond the limits of the Roman empire.
65 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 97
neglected any of the precautions which might alleviate
the sense of so dreadful a calamity. The Imperial
gardens were thrown open to the distressed multitude,
temporary buildings were erected for their accommo-
dation, and a plentiful supply of corn and provisions
was distributed at a very moderate price.^ The most
generous policy seemed to have dictated the edicts
which regulated the disposition of the streets and the
construction of private houses ; and, as it usually
happens in an age of prosperity, the conflagration of
Rome, in the course of a few years, produced a new
city, more regular and more beautiful than the former.
But all the prudence and humanity affected by Nero
on this occasion were insufficient to preserve him from
the popular suspicion. Every crime might be imputed
to the assassin of his wife and mother ; nor could the
prince who prostituted his person and dignity on the
theatre be deemed incapable of the most extravagant
folly. The voice of rumour accused the emperor as
the incendiary of his own capital ; and, as the most
incredible stories are the best adapted to the genius of
an enraged people, it was gravely reported, and firmly
believed, that Nero, enjoying the calamity which he
had occasioned, amused himself with singing to his
lyre the destruction of ancient Troy.^^ To divert a
suspicion which the power of despotism was unable to
suppress the emperor resolved to substitute in his own
place some fictitious criminals. '^ With this view
(continues Tacitus) he inflicted the most exquisite
tortures on those men, who, under the vulgar appel-
lation of Christians, were already branded with de-
served infamy. They derived their name and origin
from Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, had suffered
death, by the sentence of the procurator Pontius
20 The price of wheat (probably of the modius) was reduced
as low as terni nummi ; which would be equivalent to about
fifteen shillings the English quarter,
21 We may observe, that the rumour is mentioned by Tacitus
with a very becoming distrust and hesitation, whilst it is greedily
transcribed by Suetonius, and solemnly confirmed by Dion.
VOL. II. r>
98 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Pilate.^ For a while this dire superstition was
checked ; but it again burst forth, and not only spread
itself over Judaea, the first seat of this mischievous
sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the common
asylum which receives and protects whatever is impure,
whatever is atrocious. The confessions of those who
were seized, discovered a great multitude of their ac-
complices, and they were all convicted, not so much
for the crime of setting fire to the city, as for their
hatred of human kind.^^ They died in torments, and
their torments were embittered by insult and deri-
sion. Some were nailed on crosses ; others sewn up in
the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of
dogs ; others again, smeared over with combustible
materials, were used as torches to illuminate the dark-
ness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined
for the melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied
with a horse race, and honoured with the presence of
the emperor, who mingled with the populace in the
dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the
Christians deserved, indeed, the most exemplary
punishment, but the public abhorrence was changed
23 This testimony is alone suflBcient to expose the anachronism
of the Jews, who place the birth of Christ near a century sooner.
We may learn from Josephus (Antiquitat. xviii. 3), that the pro-
curatorship of Pilate corresponded with the last ten years of
Tiberius. A.D. 27-37. As to the particular time of the death
of Christ, a very early tradition fixed it to the 25th of March,
A.D. 29, under the consulship of the two Gemini. This date,
which is adopted by Pagi, cardinal Noris, and Le Clerc, seems
at least as probable as the vulgar aera, which is placed (I know
not from what conjectures) four years later.
23 Odio humani generis convicti. These words may either
signify the hatred of mankind towards the Christians, or the
hatred of the Christians towards mankind. I have preferred
the latter sense, as the most agreeable to the style of Tacitus,
and to the popular error, of which a precept of the Gospel (see
Luke xiv. 26) had been, perhaps, the innocent occasion. But
as the word convicti does not unite very happily with the rest
of the sentence, fames Gronovius has preferred the reading
of conjuncii, which is authorised by the valuable MS. of
Florence.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 99
into commiseration, from the opinion that those un-
happy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the
public welfare, as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant."
Those who survey, with a curious eye, the revolutions
of mankind may observe that the gardens and circus
of Nero on the Vatican, which were polluted with the
blood of the first Christians, have been rendered still
more famous by the triumph and by the abuse of the
persecuted relig-ion. On the same spot, a temple,
which far surpasses the ancient glories of the Capitol,
has been since erected by the Christian Pontiffs, who,
deriving their claim of universal dominion from an
humble fishennan of Galilee, have succeeded to the
throne of the Caesars, given laws to the barbarian
conquerors of Rome, and extended their spiritual juris-
diction from the coast of the Baltic to the shores of
the Pacific Ocean.
But it would be improper to dismiss this account of
Nero's persecution, till we have made some observa-
tions, that may serve to remove the difi^iculties with
which it is perplexed and to throw some light on the
subsequent history of the church.
1. The most sceptical criticism is obliged to respect
the truth of this extraordinary fact, and the integrity
of this celebrated passage of Tacitus. The former is
confirmed by the diligent and accurate Suetonius, who
mentions the punishment which Nero inflicted on the
Christians, a sect of men who had embraced a new and
criminal superstition. ^^ The latter may be proved by
the consent of the most ancient manuscripts ; by the
inimitable character of the style of Tacitus ; by his
reputation, which guarded his text from the interpola-
tions of pious fraud ; and by the purport of his nar-
ration, which accused the first Christians of the most
atrocious crimes, without insinuating that they pos-
sessed any miraculous or even magical powers above
24 The epithet of malefica, which some sagacious commen-
tators have translated magical, is considered by the more
rational Mosheim as only synonymous to the exitiabilis of
Tacitus.
100 THE DECLINE AND FALL
the rest of mankind. ^^ 2. Notwithstanding it is
probable that Tacitus was born some years before the
fire of Rome, he could derive only from reading and
conversation the knowledge of an event which happened
during his infancy. Before he gave himself to the
Public, he calmly waited till his genius had attained
its full maturity, and he was more than forty years of
age, when a grateful regard for the memory of the
virtuous Agricola extorted from him the most early of
those historical compositions which will delight and
instruct the most distant posterity. After making a
trial of his strength in the life of Agricola and the
description of Germany, he conceived, and at length
executed, a more arduous work ; the history of Rome,
in thirty books, from the fall of Nero to the accession
of Nerva. The administration of Nerva introduced
an age of justice and prosperity which Tacitus had
destined for the occupation of his old age ; but, when
he took a nearer view of his subject, judging, perhaps,
that it was a more honourable or a less invidious office
to record the vices of past tyrants than to celebrate
the virtues of a reigning monarch, he chose rather to
relate, under the form of annals, the actions of the
four immediate successors of Augustus. To collect,
to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore years in
an immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant
with the deepest observations and the most lively
images, was an undertaking sufficient to exercise the
genius of Tacitus himself during the greatest part of
his life. In the last years of the reign of Trajan,
whilst the victorious monarch extended the power of
Rome beyond its ancient limits, the historian was
describing, in the second and fourth books of his
25 The passage concerning Jesus Christ, which was inserted
into the text of Josephus between the time of Origen and that
of Eusebius, may furnish an example of no vulgar forgery. The
accomplishment of the prophecies, the virtues, miracles and
resurrection of Jesus are distinctly related. Josephus acknow-
ledges that he was the Messiah, and hesitates whether he should
call him a man.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 101
annals, the tyranny of Tiberius ; and the emperor
Hadrian must have succeeded to the throne, before
Tacitus, in the reg-ular prosecution of his work, could
relate the fire of the capital and the cruelty of Nero
towards the unfortunate Christians. At the distance
of sixty years, it was the duty of the annalist to adopt
the narratives of contemporaries ; but it was natural for
the philosopher to indulg-e himself in the description
of the origin, the progress, and the character of the
new sect, not so much according to the knowledge or
prejudices of the age of Nero, as according to tho>e
of the time of Hadrian. 3. Tacitus very frequently
trusts to the curiosity or reflection of his readers to
supply those intermediate circumstances and ideas
which, in his extreme conciseness, he has thought
proper to suppress. We may, therefore, presume to
imagine some probable cause which could direct the
cruelty of Nero against the Christians of Rome, whose
obscurity, as well as innocence, should have shielded
them from his indignation, and even from his notice.
The Jews, who were numerous in the capital, ani
oppressed in their own country, were a much fitter
object for the suspicions of the emperor and of the
people ; nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquished
nation, who already discovered their abhorrence of
the Roman yoke, might have recourse to the most
atrocious means of gratifying their implacable revenge.
But the Jews possessed very powerful advocates in the
palace, and even in the heart of the tyrant ; his wife
and mistress, the beautiful Poppaea, and a favourite
player of the race of Abraham, who had already
employed their intercession in behalf of the obnoxious
people.2^ In their room it was necessary to offer some
other victims, and it might easily be suggested, that,
although the genuine followers of Moses were innocent
26 The player's name was Aliturus. Through the same
channel, Josephus, about two years before, had obtained the
pardon and release of some Jewish priests, who were prisonei s
at Rome.
102 THE DECLINE AND FALL
of the fire of Rome^ there had arisen among them a
new and pernicious sect of Galik«;ans, which was
capable of the most horrid crimes. Under the ap-
pellation of Galil^eans^ two distinctions of men were
confounded, the most opposite to each other in their
manners and principles ; the disciples who had em-
braced the faith of Jesus of Nazareth, ^7 and the zealots
who had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite.^^
The former were the friends, and the latter were the
enemies, of human kind ; and the only resemblance
between them consisted in the same inflexible con-
stancy which, in the defence of their cause, rendered
them insensible of death and tortures. The followers
of Judas, who impelled their countrymen into rebellion,
were soon buried under the ruins of Jerusalem ; whilst
those of Jesus, known by the more celebrated name of
Christians, diffused themselves over the Roman empire.
How natural was it for Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian^
to appropriate to the Christians the gnilt and the suf-
ferings which he might, with far greater truth and
justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory
was almost extinguished ! 4, WTiatever opinion may
be entertained of this conjecture (for it is no more
than a conjecture), it is evident that the eff"ect, as
well as the cause, of Nero's persecution were confined
to the walls of Rome ; that the religious tenets of
the Galilaeans, or Christians, were never made a subject
of punishment or even of inquiry ; and that, as the
idea of their sufferings was, for a long time, connected
with the idea of cruelty and injustice, the moderation
of succeeding princes inclined them to spare a sect,
27 The learned Dr. Lardner (Jewish and Heathen Testi-
monies, vol. ii. pp. I02, 103) has proved that the name of
Galilaeans was a very ancient and, perhaps, the primitive
appellation of the Christians.
28 The sons of Judas were crucified in the time of Claudius.
His grandson Eleazar, after Jerusalem was taken, defended a
strong fortress with 960 of his most desperate followers. When
the battering ram had made a breach, they turned their swords
against their wives, their children, and at length against their
own breasts. They died to the last man.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 103
oppressed by a tyrant whose rag-e had been usually
directed against virtue and innocence.
It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war
consumed almost at the same time the temple of Jeru-
salem and the Capitol of Rome ; ^ and it appears no
less singular that the tribute which devotion had
destined to the former should have been converted
by the power of an assaulting victor to restore and
adore the splendour of the latter."*^ The emperors
levied a general capitation tax on the Jewish people ;
and, although the sum assessed on the head of each
individual was inconsiderable, the use for which it was
designed, and the severity with which it was exacted,
were considered as an intolerable grievance. Since
the officers of the revenue extended their unjust claim
to many persons who were strangers to the blood or
religion of the Jews, it was impossible that the Chris-
tians, who had so often sheltered themselves under the
shade of the synagogue, should now escape this rapa-
cious persecution. Anxious as they were to avoid the
slightest infection of idolatry, their conscience forbade
them to contribute to the honour of that daemon who
had assumed the character of the Capitoline Jupiter.
As a very numerous, though declining, party among
the Christians still adhered to the law of Moses, their
efforts to dissemble their Jewish origin were detected
by the decisive test of circumcision,^^ nor were the
29 The Capitol was burnt during the civil war between Vitel-
lius and Vespasian, the 19th of December, A.D. 69. On the
loth of August, A.D. 70, the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed
by the hands of the Jews themselves, rather than by those of
the Romans.
30 The new Capitol was dedicated by Domitian. The gilding
alone cost 12,000 talents (above two millions and a half). It
was the opinion of Martial (1. ix. Epigram 3) that, if the em-
peror had called in his debts, Jupiter himself, even though he
had made a general auction of Olympus, would have been
unable to pay two shillings in the pound.
'1 Suetonius (in Domitian. c. 12) had seen an old man of
ninety publicly examined before the procurator's tribunal.
This is what Martial calls, Mentula tributis damnata.
104 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
Roman magistrates at leisure to inquire into the differ-
ence of their religious tenets. Among the Christians
who were brought before the tribunal of the emperor,
or, as it seems more probable, before that of the pro-
curator of Judaea, two persons are said to have appeared,
distinguished by their extraction, which was more
truly noble than that of the greatest monarchs. These
were the grandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who
himself was the brother of Jesus Christ.^^ Their
natural pretensions to the throne of David might
perhaps attract the respect of the people, and excite
the jealousy of the governor ; but the meanness of
their garb and the simplicity of their answers soon
convinced him that they were neither desirous nor
capable of disturbing the peace of the Roman empire.
They frankly confessed their royal origin and their
near relation to the Messiah ; but they disclaimed any
temporal views, and professed that his kingdom, which
they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual
and angelic nature. \Vlien they were examined con-
cerning their fortune and occupation, they showed
their hands hardened with daily labour, and declared
that they derived their whole subsistence from the
cultivation of a farm near the village of Cocaba, of the
extent of about twenty-four English acres, and of the
value of nine thousand drachms, or three hundred
pounds sterling. The grandsons of St. Jude were dis-
missed with compassion and contempt.
But, although the obscurity of the house of David
might protect them from the suspicions of a tyrant,
the present greatness of his own family alarmed the
32 This appellation was at first understood in the most obvious
sense, and it was supposed that the brothers of Jesus were the
lawful issue of Joseph and of Mary. A devout respect for the
virginity of the Mother of God suggested to the Gnostics, and
afterwards to the orthodox Greeks, the expedient of bestowing
a second wife on Joseph. The Latins (from the time of Jerome)
improved on that hint, asserted the perpetual celibacy of Joseph,
and justified, by many similar examples, the new interpretation
that Jude, as well as Simon and James, who are styled the
brothers of Jesus Christ, were only his first cousins.
95 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 105
pusillanimous temper of Domitian, which could only
be appeased by the blood of those Romans whom he
either feared, or hated, or esteemed. Of the two sons
of his uncle Flavius Sabinus, the elder was soon con-
victed of treasonable intentions, and the younger, who
bore the name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for
his safety to his want of courage and ability. The
emperor, for a long time, distinguished so harmless
a kinsman by his favour and protection, bestowed on
him his own niece Domitilla, adopted the children of
that marriage to the hope of the succession, and in-
vested their father with the honours of the consulship.
But he had scarcely finished the term of his annual
magistracy, when, on a slight pretence, he was con-
demned and executed ; Domitilla was banished to a
desolate island on the coast of Campania ; ^^ and
sentences either of death or of confiscation were pro-
nounced against a great number of persons who were
involved in the same accusation. The guilt imputed to
their charge was that of Atheism and Jcvn^sh manners ;^^
a singular association of ideas, which cannot with any
propriety be applied except to the Christians, as they
were obscurely and imperfectly viewed by the magis-
trates and by the writers of that period. On the
strength of so probable an interpretation, and too
eagerly admitting the suspicions of a tyrant as an
evidence of their honourable crime, the church has
placed both Clemens and Domitilla among its first
martyrs, and has branded the cruelty of Domitian
with the name of the second persecution. But this
persecution (if it deserves that epithet) was of no long
33 The isle of Pandataria, according to Dion. Bruttius Prae-
sens (apud Euseb. iii. i8) banishes her to that of Pontia, which
was not far distant from the other. That difference, and a
mistake, either of Eusebius or of his transcribers, have given
occasion to suppose two Domitillas, the wife and the niece of
Clemens.
34 If the Bruttius Prsesens, from whom it is probable that he
collected this account, was the correspondent of Pliny (Epistol.
vii. 3), we may consider him as a contemporary writer.
VOL. II. D 2
106 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
duration. A few months after the death of Clemens
and the banishment of Domitilla, Stephen, a freedman
belonging to the latter, who had enjoyed the favour,
but who had not surely embraced the faith, of his
mistress, assassinated the emperor in his palace. The
memory of Domitian vvas condemned by the senate ;
his acts were rescinded ; his exiles recalled ; and under
the gentle administration of Nerva, while the innocent
were restored to their rank and fortunes, even the
most guilty either obtained pardon or escaped punish-
ment.
II. About ten years afterwards, under the reign of
Trajan, the younger Pliny was intrusted by his friend
and master with the government of Bithynia and
Pontus. He soon found himself at a loss to determine
by what rule of justice or of law he should direct his
conduct in the execution of an office the most repug-
nant to his humanity. Pliny had never assisted at
any judicial proceedings against the Christians, with
whose name alone he seems to be acquainted ; and he
was totally uninformed with regard to the nature of
their guilt, the method of their conviction, and the
degree of their punishment. In this perplexity he
had recourse to his usual expedient, of submitting to
the wisdom of Trajan an impartial and, in some re-
spects, a favourable account of the new superstition,
requesting the emperor that he would condescend to
resolve his doubts and to instruct his ignorance. ITie
life of Pliny had been employed in the acquisition of
learning, and in the business of the world. Since the
age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in the
tribunals of Rome,^ filled a place in the senate, had
been invested with the honours of the consulship, and
had formed very numerous connections with every order
of men, both in Italy and in the provinces. From his
ignorance, therefore, we may derive some useful in-
formation. We may assure ourselves that when he
55 Plin. Epist. V. 8. He pleaded his first cause A.D. 8i ; the
year after the famous eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, in which
his uncle lost his life.
96-112 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 107
accepted the government of Bithynia there were no
general laws or decrees of the senate in force against
the Christians ; that neither Trajan nor any of his
virtuous predecessors, whose edicts were received into
the civil and criminal jurisprudence, had publicly de-
clared their intentions concerning the new sect ; and
that, whatever proceedings had been carried on against
the Christians, there were none of sufficient weight
and authority to establish a precedent for the conduct
of a Roman magistrate.
The answer of Trajan, to which the Christians of
the succeeding age have frequently appealed, discovers
as much regard for justice and humanity as could be
reconciled with his mistaken notions of religious policy.
Instead of displaying the implacable zeal of an in-
quisitor, anxious to discover the most minute particles
of heresy and exulting in the number of his victims,
the emperor expresses much more solicitude to protect
the security of the innocent than to prevent the escape
of the guilty. He acknowledges the difficulty of fixing
any general plan ; but he lays down two salutary rules,
which often afi'orded relief and support to the dis-
tressed Christians. Though he directs the magistrates
to punish such persons as are legally convicted, he
prohibits them, with a very humane inconsistency,
from making any inquiries concerning the supposed
criminals. Nor was the magistrate allowed to proceed
on every kind of information. Anonymous charges
the emperor rejects, as too repugnant to the equity of
his government ; and he strictly requires, for the con-
viction of those to whom the guilt of Christianity is
imputed, the positive evidence of a fair and open
accuser. It is likewise probable that the persons who
assumed so invidious an office were obliged to declare
the grounds of their suspicions, to specify (both in
respect to time and place) the secret assemblies which
their Christian adversary had frequented, and to dis-
close a great number of circumstances which were
concealed with the most vigilant jealousy from the
eye of the profane. If they succeeded in their prose-
108 THE DECLINTE AND FALL
cution^ they were exposed to the resentment of a
considerable and active party, to the censure of the
more liberal portion of mankind, and to the ignominy
which, in every age and country, has attended the
character of an informer. If, on the contrary, they
failed in their jiroofs, they incurred the severe, and
perhaps capital, penalty which, according to a law
published by the emperor Hadrian, was inflicted on
those who falsely attributed to their fellow-citizens
the crime of Christianity. The violence of personal
or superstitious animosity might sometimes prevail
over the most natural apprehensions of disgrace and
danger ; but it cannot surely be imagined that accusa-
tions of so unpromising an appearance were either
lightly or frequently undertaken by the Pagan subjects
of the Roman empire.^^
ITie expedient which was employed to elude the
prudence of the laws affords a sufficient proof how
effectually they disappointed the mischievous designs
of private malice or superstitious zeal. In a large and
tumultuous assembly, the restraints of fear and shame,
so forcible on the minds of individuals, are deprived
of the greatest part of their influence. The pious
Christian, as he was desirous to obtain or to escape
the glory of martyrdom, expected, either with im-
patience or with terror, the stated returns of the public
games and festivals. On those occasions, the inhabi-
tants of the great cities of the empire were collected
in the circus of the theatre, where every circumstance
of the place, as well as of the ceremony, contributed
to kindle their devotion and to extinguish their
humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators, crowned
with garlands, perfumed witli incense, purified with
the blood of victims, and surrounded with the altars
36 Eusebius (Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. iv. c. 9) has preserved the
edict of Hadrian. He has likewise (c. 13) given us one still
more favourable under the name of Antoninus ; the authenticity
of which is not so universally allowed. The second Apology of
Justin contains some curious particulars relative to the accusa-
tions of Christians.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 109
d statues of tlieir tutelar deities, resigned themselves
to the enjoyment of pleasures which they considered
MS an essential part of their religious worship ; they
recollected that the Christians alone abhorred the
:ods of mankind, and by their absence and melancholy
oil these solemn festivals seemed to insult or to lament
the public felicity. If the empire had been afflicted
"jy any recent caiamity_, by a plague^ a famine, or an
iiisuccessfulwar ; if the Tiber had, or if the Nile had
liot, risen beyond its banks ; if the earth had shaken,
or if the temperate order of the seasons had been
interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced
that the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who
' ^re spared by the excessive lenity of the government,
1 at length provoked the Divine Justice. It was
: among a licentious and exasperated populace that
tiie forms of legal proceedings could be observed ; it
v.as not in an amphitheatre, stained with the blood of
-■. ild beasts and gladiators, that the voice of compassion
could be heard. The impatient clamours of the multi-
Vdde denounced the Christians as the enemies of gods
tnd men, doomed them to the severest tortures, and,
ituring to accuse by name some of the most dis-
gruished of the new sectaries, required, with irre-
- ^tible vehemence, that they should be instantly
aDprehended and cast to the lions. ^^ The provincial
sovernors and magistrates who presided in the public
5l)8ctacles were usually inclined to gratify the inclina-
; tions, and to appease the rage, of the people by the
I sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. But the wisdom
i of the emperors protected the church from the danger
of these tumultuous clamours and irregular accusa-
, tiuus, which they justly censured as repugnant both
I to the firmness and to the equity of their administra-
I tiou. The edicts of Hadrian and of Antoninus Pius
exjjressly declared that the voice of the multitude
should never be admitted as legal evidence to convict
I 37 The acts of the martyrdom of Polycarp exhibit a lively
picture of these tumults, which were usually fomented by the
ffialice of the Tews.
110 THE DECLINE AND FALL
or to punish those unfortunate persons who had em-
braced the enthusiasm of the Christians. ^^
III. Punishment was not the inevitable consequence
of conviction, and the Christians, whose guilt was the
most clearly proved by the testimony of witnesses, or
even by their voluntary confession, still retained in
their own power the alternative of life or death. It
was not so much the past offence, as the actual resist-
ance, which excited the indignation of the magistrate.
He was persuaded that he offered them an easy pardon,
since, if they consented to cast a few grains of incense
upon the altar, they were dismissed from the tribunal
in safety and with applause. It was esteemed the duty
of a humane judge to endeavour to reclaim, rather
than to punish, those deluded enthusiasts. Varying
his tone according to the age, the sex, or the situation
of the prisoners, he frequently condescended to set
before their eyes every circumstance which could
render life more pleasing, or death more terrible ; and
to solicit, nay, to entreat them, that they would show
some compassion to themselves, to their families, and
to their friends. If threats and persuasions proved
ineffectual, he had often recourse to violence ; the
scourge and the rack were called in to supply the
deficiency of argument, and every act of cruelty was
employed to subdue such inflexible and, as it appeared
to the Pagans, such criminal obstinacy. The ancient
apologists of Christianity have censured, with equal
truth and severity, the irregular conduct of their per-
secutors, who, contrary to every principle of judicial
proceeding, admitted the use of torture, in order to
obtain not a confession but a denial of the crime which
was the object of their inquiry. The monks of suc-
ceeding ages, who, in their peaceful solitudes, enter-
tained themselves with diversifying the death and
sufferings of the primitive martyrs, have frequently
invented torments of a much more refined and in-
genious nature. In particular, it has pleased them to
88 These regulations are inserted in the above-mentioned
edicts of Hadrian and Pius.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 111
suppose that the zeal of the Roman magistrates^ dis-
daining every consideration of moral virtue or public
decency,, endeavoured to seduce those whom they were
unable to vanquish, and that, by their orders, the most
brutal violence was offered to those whom they found
it impossible to seduce. It is related that pious females,
who were prepared to despise death, were sometimes
condemned to a more severe trial, and called upon to
determine whether they set a higher value on their
religion or on their chastity. The youths to whose
licentious embraces they were abandoned received a
solemn exhortation from the judge to exert their most
strenuous efforts to maintain the honour of Venus
against the impious virgin who refused to burn incense
on her altars. Their violence, however, was com-
monly disappointed ; and the seasonable interposition
of some miraculous power preserved the chaste spouses
of Christ from the dishonour even of an involuntary
defeat. We should not, indeed, neglect to remark
that the more ancient, as well as authentic, memorials
of the church are seldom polluted with those extra-
vagant and indecent fictions.^
llie total disregard of truth and probability in the
representation of these primitive martyrdoms was occa-
sioned by a very natural mistake. The ecclesiastical
writers of the fourth or fifth centuries ascribed to the
magistrates of Rome the same degree of implacable
and unrelenting zeal which filled their own breasts
against the heretics or the idolaters of their own times.
It is not improbable that some of those persons who
were raised to the dignities of the empire might have
imbibed the prejudices of the populace, and that the
cruel disposition of others might occasionally be stimu-
lated by motives of avarice or of personal resentment.*^
39 Jerome, in his Legend of Paul the Hermit, tells a strange
story of a young man, who was chained naked on a bed of
flowers, and assaulted by a beautiful and wanton courtezan.
He quelled the rising temptation by biting off his tongne.
40 The conversion of his wife provoked Claudius Herminianus,
governor of Cappadocia, to treat the Christians with uncommon
severity.
112 THE DECLINE AND FALL
But it is certain, and we may appeal to the grateful
confessions of the first Christians, that the greatest
part of those magistrates who exercised in the provinces
the authority of the emperor, or of the senate, and to
whose hands alone the jurisdiction of life and death
was intrusted, behaved like men of polished manners
and liberal educations, who respected the rules of
justice, and who were conversant with the precepts
of philosophy. They frequently declined the odious
task of persecution, dismissed the charge with con-
tempt, or suggested to the accused Christian some
legal evasion by which he might elude the severity of
the laws.^^ Whenever they were invested with a dis-
cretionary power, they used it much less for tlie
oppression than for the relief and benefit of the afflicted
church. They were far from condemning all the
Christians who were accused before their tribunal, and
very far from punishing with death all those who were
convicted of an obstinate adherence to tlie new super-
stition. Contenting themselves, for the most part,
with the milder chastisements of imprisonment, exile,
or slavery in the mines,''^ they left the unhappy victims
of their justice some reason to hope that a prosperous
event, the accession, the marriage, or the triumph of
an emperor might speedily restore them, by a general
pardon, to their former state. The martyrs, devoted
to immediate execution by the Roman magistrates,
appear to have been selected from the most opposite
extremes. They were either bishops and presbyters,
the persons the most distinguished among the Christians
by their rank and influence, and whose example might
strike terror into the whole sect ; '^^ or else they were
« TertuUian, in his epistle to the governor of Africa, men-
tions several remarkable instances of lenity and forbearance
which had happened within his knowledge.
42 The mines of Numidia contained nine bishops, with a pro-
portionable number of their clergy and people, to whom Cyprian
addressed a pious epistle of praise and comfort.
■*3 Though we cannot receive with entire confidence either the
epistles or the acts of Ignatius (they may be found in the and
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 113
the meanest aud most abject amoii^ them, particularly
those of the servile coiiditiou, whose lives were esteemed
of little value, aud wliose surferiugs were viewed by
the ancieuts with too careless an indifference.^* The
learned Origeu, who, from his experience as well as
reading-, was intimately acquainted with the liistory of
the Christians, declares, in the most express terms, that
the number of martyrs was very inconsiderable. His
authoritv would alone be sufficient to annihilate that
formidable army of martyrs whose relics, drawn for the
most part from the catacombs of Rome, have replenished
so mauv churches,^^ and whose marvellous achieve-
ments have been the subject of so many volumes of
holy romance.^ But the general assertion of Origen
may be explained and confirmed by the particular
volume of the ApostoHc Fathers), yet we may quote that bishop
of Antioch as one of those exemplary manyrs. He was sent in
chains to Rome as a public spectacle ; and, when he arrived at
Troas, he received the pleasing intelligence that the persecution
of Antioch was already at an end.
** Among the martyrs of Lyons (Euseb. 1. v, c. i), the slave
Blandina was distinguished by more exquisite tortures. Of the
five mart}TS so much celebrated in the acts of Felicitas and
Perpetua, two were of a servile, and two others of a very mean,
condition.
^ If we recollect that all the Plebeians of Rome were not
Christians, and that all the Christians were not saints and
martyrs, we may judge with how much safety rehgious honours
can be ascribed to bones or urns indiscriminately taken from
the pubhc burial-place. After ten centuries of a very free and
open trade, some suspicions have arisen among the more
learned Catholics. They now require, as a proof of sanctity
and martyrdom, the letters B. M., a vial full of red Uquor, sup-
posed to be blood, or the figure of a palm tree. But the two
former signs are of httle weight, and with regard to the last it
is observed by the critics, i. That the figure, as it is called, of a
palm is perhaps a cypress, and perhaps only a stop, the flourish
of a comma, used in the monumental inscriptions. 2. That the
palm was the symbol of victory among the Pagans. 3. That
among the Christians it served as the emblem, not only of
martyrdom, but in general of a joyful resurrection.
■*o As a specimen of these legends, we may be satisfied with
10,000 Christian soldiers crucified in one day, either by Trajan
or Hadrian, on Mount Ararat.
114 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
testimony of his friend Dionysius, who, in the immense
city of Alexandria, and under the rigorous persecution
of Decius, reckons only ten men and seven women
who suffered for the profession of the Christian name.
During the same period of persecution, the zealous,
the eloquent, the ambitious Cyprian, governed the
church, not only of Carthage, but even of Africa. He
possessed every quality which could engage the rever-
ence of the faithful or provoke the suspicions and
resentment of the Pagan magistrates. His character
as well as his station seemed to mark out that holy
prelate as the most distinguished object of envy and
of danger. The experience, however, of the life of
Cyprian is sufficient to prove that our fancy has ex-
aggerated the perilous situation of a Christian bishop ;
and that the dangers to which he was exposed were
less imminent than those which temporal ambition is
always prepared to encounter in the pursuit of honours.
Four Roman emperors, with their families, their favour-
ites, and their adherents, perished by the sword in the
space of ten years, during which the bishop of Carthage
guided, by his authority and eloquence, the counsels
of the African church. It was only in the third year
of his administration that he had reason, during a few
months, to apprehend the severe edicts of Decius, the
vigilance of the magistrate, and the clamours of the
multitude, who loudly demanded that Cyprian, the
leader of the Christians, should be thrown to the lions.
Pi-udence suggested the necessity of a temporary re-
treat, and the voice of prudence was obeyed. He
withdrew himself into an obscure solitude, from whence
he could maintain a constant correspondence with the
clergy and people of Carthage ; and, concealing himself
till the tempest was past, he preserved his life, without
relinquishing either his power or his reputation. His
extreme caution did not, however, escape- the censure
of the more rigid Christians who lamented, or the
reproaches of his personal enemies who insulted, a
conduct which they considered as a pusillanimous and
criminal desertion of the most sacred duty. The pro-
257-8 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 115
priety of reserving himself for the future exigencies of
the church, the example of several holy bishops/^ and
the divine admonitions which, as he declares himself,
he frequently received in visions and ecstacies, were
the reasons alleged in his justification. But his best
apology may be found in the cheerful resolution with
which, about eight years afterwards, he suffered death
in the cause of religion. The authentic history of his
martyrdom has been recorded with unusual candour
and impartiality. A short abstract, therefore, of its
most important circumstances will convey the clearest
information of the spirit, and of the forms, of the
Roman persecutions.^
When Valerian was consul for the third, and Gal-
lienus for the fourth, time, Paternus, proconsul of
Africa, summoned Cyprian to appear in his private
council-chamber. He there acquainted him with the
Imperial mandate which he had just received,*^ that
those who had abandoned the Roman religion should
immediately return to the practice of the ceremonies
of their ancestors. Cyprian replied without hesitation
that he was a Christian and a bishop, devoted to the
worship of the true and only Deity, to whom he offered
up his daily supplications for the safety and prosperity
of the two emperors, his lawful sovereigns. With
modest confidence he pleaded the privilege of a citizen,
in refusing to give any answer to some invidious and,
47 In particular those of Dionysius of Alexandria and Gregory
Thaumaturgus of Neo-Cassarea.
43 We have an original life of Cyprian by the deacon Pontius,
the companion of his exile, and the spectator of his death ; and
we likewise possess the ancient proconsular acts of his martyr-
dom. These two relations are consistent with each other and
with probability ; and, what is somewhat remarkable, they are
both unsullied by any miraculous circumstances.
49 It should seem that these were circular orders, sent at the
same time to all the governors. Dionysius (ap. Euseb. 1. vii.
c. ii) relates the history of his own banishment from Alexandria
almost in the same manner. But, as he escaped and survived
the persecution, we must account him either more or less fortu-
nate than Cyprian.
116 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
indeed, illegal questions which the proconsul had pro-
posed. A sentence of banishment was pronounced as
the penalty of Cyprian's disobedience ; and he was
conducted, without delay, to Curubis, a free and
maritime city of Zeuei'itana, in a pleasant situation, a
fertile territory, and at the distance of about forty
miles from Carthag-e. The exiled bishop enjoyed the
conveniencies of life and the consciousness of virtue.
His reputation was diffused over Africa and Italy ; an
account of his behaviour was published for the edifica-
tion of the Christian world ; and his solitude was
frequently interrupted by the letters, the visits, and
the congratulations of the faithful. On the arrival of
a new proconsul in tlie province, the fortune of Cyprian
appeared for some time to wear a still more favour-
able aspect. He was recalled from banishment ; and,
thougli not yet permitted to return to Carthage, his
own gardens in the neighbourhood of the capital Avere
assigned for the place of his residence.^*^
At length, exactly one year^^ after Cyprian was
first apprehended, Galerius Maximus, proconsul of
Africa, received the Imperial warrant for the execution
of the Christian teachers. ITie bishop of Carthage
was sensible that he should be singled out for one of
the first victims ; and the frailty of nature tempted
him to withdraw himself, by a secret flight, from the
danger and tlie honour of martyrdom ; but, soon re-
covering that fortitude which his character required,
he returned to his gardens, and patiently expected the
ministers of death. Two officers of rank, who were
intrusted witli that commission, placed Cyprian between
them in a chariot ; and, as the proconsul was not then
w Upon his conversion, he had sold those gardens for the
benefit of the poor. The indulgence of God (most probably the
liberality of some Christian friend) restored them to Cyprian.
See Pontius, c. 15.
61 When Cyprian, a twelvemonth before, was sent into exile,
be dreamt that he should be put to death the next day. The
event made it necessary to explain that word as signifying a
year. Pontius, c. 12.
257-« OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 1]7
at leisure^ they conducted him, not to a prison, hut to
a private house in Carthage, which helonged to one of
them. An elegant supper was provided for the enter-
tainment of the hishop, and his Christian friends were
permitted for the last time to enjoy his society, whilst
the streets were filled with a multitude of the faithful,
anxious and alarmed at the approaching fate of their
spiritual father. °"^ In the morning he appeared before
the tribunal of the proconsul, who, after informing
himself of the name and situation of Cyprian, com-
manded him to offer sacrifice, and pressed him to reflect
on the consequences of his disobedience. The refusal
of Cyprian was firm and decisive ; and the magistrate,
when he had taken the opinion of his council, pro-
nounced with some reluctance the sentence of death.
It was conceived in the following terms : '^That Thascius
Cyprianus should be immediately beheaded, as the
enemy of the gods of Rome, and as the chief and ring-
leader of a criminal association, which he had seduced
into an impious resistance against the laws of the most
holy emperors, Valerian and Gallienus." The manner
of his execution was the mildest and least painful that
could be inflicted on a person convicted of any capital
offence : nor was the use of torture admitted to obtain
from the bishop of Carthage either the recantation of
his principles or the discovery of his accomplices.
As soon as the sentence was proclaimed, a general
cry of '^ We will die with him " arose at dnce among
the listening multitude of Christians who waited before
the palace gates. The generous effusions of their zeal
and affection were neither serviceable to Cyprian nor
dangerous to themselves. He was led away under a
guard of tribunes and centurions, without resistance
and without insult, to the place of his execution, a
52 Pontius (c. 15) acknowledges that Cyprian, with whom he
supped, passed the night custodia delicata. The bishop exer-
cised a last and very proper act of jurisdiction, by directing
that the younger females who watched in the street should be
removed from the dangers and temptations of a nocturnal
crowd.
118 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
spacious and level plain near the city, which was
already filled with great numbers of spectators. His
faithful presbyters and deacons were permitted to
accompany their holy bishop. They assisted him in
laying aside his upper garment, spread linen on the
ground to catch the precious relics of his blood, and
received his orders to bestow five-and-twenty pieces of
gold on the executioner. The martyr then covered
his face with his hands, and at one blow his head was
separated from his body. His corpse remained during
same hours exposed to the curiosity of the Gentiles ;
but in the night it was removed, and transported in a
triumphal procession and with a splendid illumination
to the burial-place of the Christians. The funeral of
Cyprian was publicly celebrated without receiving any
interruption from the Roman magistrates ; and those
among the faithful who had performed the last offices
to his person and his memory were secure from the
danger of inquiry or of punishment. It is remarkable
that of so great a multitude of bishops in the province
of Africa Cyprian was the first who was esteemed
worthy to obtain the crown of martyrdom.
It was in the choice of Cyprian either to die a martyr
or to live an apostate, but on that choice depended the
alternative of honour or infamy. Could we suppose
that the bishop of Carthage had employed the pro-
fession of the Christian faith only as the instrument
of his avai'ice or ambition, it was still incumbent on
him to support the character which he had assumed ; ^
and, if he possessed the smallest degree of manly
fortitude, rather to expose himself to the most cruel
tortures than by a single act to exchange the reputa-
tion of a whole life for the abhorrence of his Christian
brethren and the contempt of the Gentile world. But,
if the zeal of Cyprian was supported by the sincere
conviction of the truth of those doctrines which he
53 Whatever opinion we may entertain of the character or
principles of Thomas Becket, we must acknowledge that he
suffered death with a constancy not unworthy of the primitive
martyrs.
258 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 119
preached, the crown of martyrdom must have appeared
to him as an object of desire rather than of terror.
It is not easy to extract any distinct ideas from the
vague though eloquent declamations of the Fathers or
to ascertain the degree of immortal glory and happi-
ness which they confidently promised to those who
were so fortunate as to shed their blood in the cause
of religion."^ They inculcated with becoming diligence
that the fire of martyrdom supplied every defect and
expiated every sin ; that, while the souls of ordinary
Christians were obliged to pass through a slow and
painful purification, the triumphant sufferers entered
into the immediate fruition of eternal bliss, where, in
the society of the patriarchs, the apostles, and the
prophets, they reigned with Christ, and acted as his
assessors in the universal judgment of mankind. The
assurance of a lasting reputation upon earth, a motive
so congenial to the vanity of human nature, often
served to animate the courage of the martyrs. The
honours which Rome or Athens bestowed on those
citizens who had fallen in the cause of their country
were cold and unmeaning demonstrations of respect,
when compared with the ardent gratitude and devotion
which the primitive church expressed towards the
victorious champions of the faith. The annual com-
memoration of their virtues and sufferings was observed
as a sacred ceremony, and at length terminated in
religious worship. Among the Christians who had
publicly confessed their religious principles, those who
(as it very frequently happened) had been dismissed
from the tribunal or the prisons of the Pagan magis-
trates obtained such honours as were justly due to
their imperfect martyrdom and their generous resolu-
tion. The most pious females courted the permission
of imprinting kisses on the fetters which they had
worn and on the wounds which they had received.
Their persons were esteemed holy, their decisions were
54 The learning of Dodwell and the ingenuity of Middleton
have left scarcely anything to add concerning the merit, the
honours, and the motives of the martyrs.
120 THE DECLINE AND FALL
admitted with deference, and they too often abused,
hy their spiritual pride and licentious manners, the
pre-eminence which tlieir zeal and intrepidity had
acquired. ^^ Distinctions like these, whilst they display
the exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable number,
of those who suffered and of those who died for the
profession of Christianity.
Tlie sober discretion of the present age will more
readily censure than admire, but can more easily
admire than imitate, the fervour of the first Christians ;
who, according to the lively expression of Sulpicius
Severus, desired martyrdom with more eagerness than
his own contemporaries solicited a bishopric. The
epistles which Ignatius composed as he was carried in
chains through the cities of Asia breathe sentiments
the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human
nature. He earnestly beseeches the Romans that,
when he should he exposed in the amphitheatre, they
would not, by their kind but unseasonable interces-
sion, deprive him of the crown of glory ; and he
declares his resolution to provoke and irritate the M-ild
beasts which might be employed as the instruments of
his death.^ Some stories are related of the courage
of martyrs who actually performed what Ignatius had
intended ; who exasperated the fury of the lions,
pressed the executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully
leaped into the fires which were kindled to consume
them, and discovered a sensation of joy and pleasure
in the midst of the most exquisite tortures. Several
examples have been preserved of a zeal impatient of
those restraints which the emperors had provided for
the security of the church. Tlie Christians sometimes
supplied by their voluntary declaration the want of an
accuser, rudely disturbed the public service of Pagan-
55 The number of pretended martyrs has been very much
muhiplied by the custom which was introduced of bestowing
that honourable name on confessors.
66 It suited the purpose of Bishop Pearson to justify, by
a profusion of examples and authorities, the sentiments of
Ignatius.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 121
ism/' and, rushing in crowds round the tribunal of
the magistrates, called upon them to pronounce and
to inflict the sentence of the law. The behaviour of
the Christians was too remarkable to escape the notice
of the ancient philosophers ; but they seem to have
considered it with much less admiration than astonish-
ment. Incapable of conceiving- the motives which
sometimes transported the fortitude of believers beyond
the bounds of prudence or reason, they treated such
an eagerness to die as the strange result of obstinate
despair, of stupid insensibility, or of superstitious
frenzy. " Unhappy men ! " exclaimed the proconsul
Antoninus to the Christians of Asia ; "unhappy men !
if you are thus weary of your lives, is it so difficult
for you to find ropes and precipices.^" ^ He was
extremely cautious (as it is observed by a learned and
pious historian) of punishing men who had found no
accusers but themselves, the Imperial laws not having
made any provision for so unexpected a case ; con-
demning, therefore, a few as a warning to their
brethren, he dismissed the multitude with indignation
and contempt. Notwithstanding this real or affected
disdain, the intrepid constancy of the faithful was
productive of more salutary effects on those minds
which nature or grace had disposed for the easy recep-
tion of religious truth. On these melancholy occa-
sions, there were many among the Gentiles who pitied,
who admired, and who were converted. The generous
enthusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the
spectators ; and the blood of martyrs, according to a
well-known observation, became the seed of the church.
57 The story of Polyeuctes, on which Corneille has founded
a very beautiful tragedy, is one of the most celebrated, though
not perhaps the most authentic, instances of this excessive zeal.
We should observe that the 6oth canon of the council of IlIilDeris
refuses the title of martyrs to those who exposed themselves to
death by publicly destroying the idols.
58 The learned are divided between three persons of the same
name, who were all proconsuls of Asia. I am inclined to ascribe
this story to Antoninus Pius, who was afterwards emperor ; and
who may have governed Asia under the reign of Trajan.
no ma
122 THE DECLINE AND FALL
But, although devotion had raised, and eloquence
continued to inflame, this fever of the mind, it in-
sensibly gave way to the more natural hopes and fears
of the human heart, to the love of life, the apprehension
of pain, and the horror of dissolution. The more
prudent rulers of the church found themselves obliged
to restrain the indiscreet ardour of their followers,
and to distrust a constancy which too often abandoned
them in the hour' of trial. As the lives of the faithful
became less mortified and austere, they were every day
less ambitious of the honours of martyrdom ; and the
soldiers of Christ, instead of distinguishing themselves
by voluntary deeds of heroism, frequently deserted
their post, and fled in confusion before the enemy
whom it was their duty to resist. There were three
methods, however, of escaping the flames of persecution,
which were nor attended with an equal degree of guilt :
the first, indeed, was generally allowed to be innocent ;
the second was of a doubtful, or at least of a venial,
nature ; but the third implied a direct and criminal
apostacy from the Christian faith.
L A modern inquisitor would hear with surprise
that, whenever an information was given to a Roman
magistrate of any person within his jurisdiction who
had embraced the sect of the Christians, the charge
was communicated to the party accused, and that a
convenient time was allowed him to settle his domestic
concerns and to prepare an answer to the crime which
was imputed to him.^^ If he entertained any doubt of
his own constancy, such a delay afl'orded him the
opportunity of preserving his life and honour by flight,
of withdrawing himself into some obscure retirement
or some distant province, and of patiently expecting
the return of peace and se<'urity. A measure so
consonant to reason was soon authorised by the advice
59 In the second apology of Justin, there is a particular and
very curious instance of this legal delay. The same indulgence
was granted to accused Christians in the persecution of Decius ;
and Cyprian (de Lapsis) expressly mentions the "Dies negan-
tibus praestitutus."
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 123
and example of the most holy prelates, and seems to
have been censured by few, except by the Montanists,
who deviated into heresy by their strict and obstinate
adherence to the rig-our of ancient disciplined*^ II.
The provincial g-overnors, whose zeal was less prevalent
than their avarice, had countenanced the practice of
selling certificates (or libels as they were called),
which attested that the persons therein mentioned had
complied with the laws and sacrificed to the Roman
deities. By producing these false declarations, the
opulent and timid Christians were enabled to silence
the malice of an informer and to reconcile, in some
measure, their safety with their religion. A slight
penance atoned for this profane dissimulation. III. In
every persecution there were great numbers of un-
worthy Christians who publicly disowned or renounced
the faith which they had professed ; and who confirmed
the sincerity of their abjuration by the legal acts of
burning incense or of offering sacrifices. Some of
these apostates had yielded on the first menace or
exhortation of the magistrate ; whilst the patience of
others had been subdued by the length and repetition
of tortures. The affrighted countenances of some
betrayed their inward remorse, while others advanced,
with confidence and alacrity, to the altars of the gods.
But the disguise which fear had imposed subsisted no
longer than the present danger. As soon as the
severity of the persecution was abated, the doors of the
churches were assailed by the returning multitude of
penitents, who detested their idolatrous submission, and
who solicited, with equal ardour, but with various suc-
cess, their readmission into the society of Christians. ^^
^ Tertullian considers flight from persecution as an imperfect,
but very criminal apostacy, as an impious attempt to elude the
will of God, &c. &c. He has written a treatise on this subject,
which is filled with the wildest fanaticism and the most inco-
herent declamation. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that
Tertullian did not suffer martyrdom himself.
SI It was on this occasion that Cyprian wrote his treatise De
Lapsis and many of his epistles. The controversy concerning
the treatment of penitent apostates does not occur among the
124 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
IV. Notwithstanding the general rules established
for the conviction and punishment of the Christians,
the fate of those sectaries, in an extensive and arbitrary
government, must still, in a great measure, have
depended on their own behaviour, the circumstances
of the times, and the temper of their supreme as well
as subordinate rulers. Zeal might sometimes provoke,
and prudence might sometimes avert or assuage, the
superstitious fury of the Pagans. A variety of motives
might dispose the provincial governors either to en-
force or to relax the execution of the laws ; and of
these motives the most forcible was their regard not
only for the public edicts, but for the secret intentions
of the emperor, a glance from whose eye was sufficient
to kindle or to extinguish the flames of persecution. As
often as any occasional severities were exercised in the
different parts of the empire, the primitive Christians
lamented and perhaps magnified their own sufferings ;
but the celebrated number of ten persecutions has been
determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth
century, who possessed a more distinct view of the
prosperous or adverse fortunes of the church, from
the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The ingenious
parallels of the ten plagues of Egypt and of the ten
horns of the Apocalypse first suggested this calculation
to their minds ; and in their application of the faith of
prophecy to the truth of history they were careful to
select those reigns which were indeed the most hostile
to the Christian cause. ^^ But these transient persecu-
tions served only to revive the zeal, and to restore the
discipline, of the faithful : and the moments of extra-
ordinary rigour were compensated by much longer
intervals of peace and security. The indifference of
some princes and the indulgence of others permitted
Christians of the preceding century. Shall we ascribe this to
the superiority of their faith and courage or to our less intimate
knowledge of their history ?
62 Sulpicius Severus was the first author of this computation ;
though he seemed desirous of reserving the tenth and greatest
persecution for the coming of the Antichrist.
180 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 125
the Christians to enjoy, thoug-h not perhaps a legal,
yet an actual and public^, toleration of their religion.
Tlie apology of Tertullian contains two very ancient,
very singular, but at the same time very suspicious,
instances of Imperial clemency ; the edicts published
by Tiberius and by Marcus Antoninus^ and designed
not only to protect the innocence of the Christians,
but even to proclaim those stupendous miracles which
had attested the truth of their doctrine. The first of
these examples is attended with some difficulties which
might perplex the sceptical mind. We are required to
believe that Pontius Pilate informed the emperor of
the unjust sentence of death which he had pronounced
against an innocent, and, as it appeared, a divine,
person ; and that, without acquiring the merit, he
exposed himself to the danger, of martyrdom ; that
Tiberius, who avowed his contempt for all religion,
immediately conceived tlie design of placing the Jewish
Messiah among the gods of Rome ; that his servile
senate ventured to disobey the commands of their
master ; that Tiberius, instead of resenting their refusal,
contented himself with protecting the Christians from
the severity of the laws, many years before such laws
were enacted, or before the cliurch had assumed any
distinct name or existence ; and lastly, that the memory
of this extraordinary transaction was ])reserved in the
most public and authentic records, which escaped the
knowledge of the historians of Greece and Rome, and
were only visible to the eyes of an African Christian,
who composed his apology one hundred and sixty
years after the death of Tiberius. The edict of Marcus
Antoninus is supposed to have been the effect of his
devotion and gratitude for the miraculous deliverance
which he had obtained in the Marcomannic war. The
distress of the legions, the seasonable tempest of rain
and hail, of thunder and lightning, and the dismay
and defeat of the barbarians, have been celebrated by
the eloquence of several Pagan writers. If there were
any Christians in that army, it was natural that they
should ascribe some merit to the fervent prayers
126 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
which, in the moment of danger, they had offered up
for their own and the public safety. But we are stiU
assured by monuments of brass and marble, by the
Imperial medals, and by the Antonine column, that
neither the prince nor the people entertained any
sense of this signal obligation, since they unanimously
attribute their deliverance to the providence of Jupiter
and to the interposition of Mercury. During the whole
course of his reign, Marcus despised the Christians as
a philosopher, and punished them as a sovereign.
By a singular fatality, the hardships which they had
endured under the government of a virtuous prince
immediately ceased on the accession of a tyrant, and,
as none except themselves had experienced the injustice
of Marcus, so they alone were protected by the lenity
of Commodus. The celebrated Marcia, the most
favoured of his concubines, and who at length con-
trived the murder of her Imperial lover, entertained
a singular affection for the oppressed church ; and,
though it was impossible that she could reconcile the
practice of vice with the precepts of the Gospel, she
might hope to atone for the frailties of her sex and
profession, by declaring herself the patroness of the
Christians. Under the gracious protection of Marcia,
they passed in safety the thirteen years of a cruel
tyranny ; and, when the empire was established in
the house of Severus, they formed a domestic but
more honourable connection with the new court. The
emperor was persuaded that, in a dangerous sickness,
he had derived some benefit, either spiritual or physical,
from the holy oil with which one of his slaves had
anointed him. He always treated with peculiar dis-
tinction several persons of both sexes who had embraced
the new religion. The nurse as well as the preceptor
of Caracalla were Christians ; and, if that young prince
ever betrayed a sentiment of humanity, it was occa-
sioned by an incident which, however trifling, bore
some relation to the cause of Christianity. Under the
reign of Severus, the fury of the populace was checked ;
the rigour of ancient laws was for some time suspended ;
211-49 OF THE -ROMAN EMPIRE 127
and the provincial governors were satisfied with receiv-
ing an annual present from the churches within their
jurisdiction, as the price, or as the reward, of their
moderation,^3 xhe controversy concerning the precise
time of the celebration of Easter armed the bishops of
Asia and Italy against each other, and was considered
as the most important business of this period of leisure
and tranquillity. Nor was the peace of the church in-
terrupted till the increasing numbers of proselytes
seem at length to have attracted the attention, and to
have alienated the mind, of Severus. AVlth the design
of restraining the progress of Christianity, he published
an edict which, though it was designed to affect only
the new converts, could not be carried into strict exe-
cution without exposing to danger and punishment the
most zealous of their teachers and missionaries. In
this mitigated persecution, we may still discover the
indulgent spirit of Rome and of Polytheism, which so
readily admitted every excuse in favour of those who
practised the religious ceremonies of their fathers.
But the laws which Severus had enacted soon expired
with the authority of that emperor ; and the Christians,
after this accidental tempest, enjoyed a calm of thirty-
eight years. Till this period they had usually held
their assemblies in private houses and sequestered
places. They were now permitted to erect and conse-
crate convenient edifices for the purpose of religious
worship ; ^^ to purchase lands, even at Rome itself, for
the use of the community ; and to conduct the elections
of their ecclesiastical ministers in so public, but at the
same time in so exemplary, a manner as to deserve
63 Terlullian de Fuga, c, 13. The present was made during
the feast of the Saturnalia ; and it is a matter of serious concern
to Tertullian that the faithful should be confounded with the
most infamous professions which purchased the connivance of
the government.
^ The antiquity of Christian churches is discussed by Tille-
mont (M^moires Eccl^siastiques, torn. iii. part ii. pp. 68-72), and
by Mr. Moyle (vol. i. pp. 378-398). The former refers the first
construction of them to the peace of Alexander Severus ; the
latter to the peace of Gallienus.
128 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the respectful attention of the Gentiles.^ This long
repose of the church was accompanied with dignity.
The reigns of those princes who derived their ex-
traction from the Asiatic provinces proved the most
favourable to the Christians ; the eminent persons of
the sect^ instead of being reduced to implore the pro-
tection of a slave or concubine, were admitted into the
palace in the honourable characters of priests and
philosophers ; and their mysterious doctrines, which
were already diffused among the people, insensibly
attracted the curiosity of their sovereign. When the
empress Mammaea passed through Antioch, she ex-
})ressed a desire of conversing with the celebrated
Origen, the fame of whose piety and learning was
spread over the East. Origen obeyed so flattering an
invitation, and, though he could not expect to succeed
in the conversion of an artful and ambitious woman,
she listened with pleasure to his eloquent exhortations,
and honourably dismissed him to his retirement in
Palestine.^ The sentiments of Mammaea were adopted
by her son Alexander, and the philosophic devotion
of that emperor was marked by a singular but in-
judicious regard for the Christian religion. In his
domestic chapel he placed the statues of Abraham,
of Orpheus, of Apollonius, and of Christ, as an honour
justly due to those respectable sages who had instructed
mankind in the various modes of addressing their
homage to the supreme and universal deity.^'^ A purer
*5 The emperor Alexander adopted their method of publicly
proposing the names of those persons who were candidates for
ordination. It is true that the honour of this practice is likewise
attributed to the Jews.
66 Mammasa was styled a holy and pious woman, both by
the Christians and the Pagans. From the former, therefore, it
was impossible that she should deserve that honourable epithet.
67 His design of building a public temple to Christ (Hist.
August, p. I2g) and the objection which' was suggested either
to him or in similar circumstances to Hadrian appear to have
no other foundation than an improbable report, invented by
the Christians and credulously adopted by an historian of the
asre of Constantine.
1^50 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 129
faith, as well as worship, was openly professed and
practised among his household. Bishops, perhaps
for the first time, were seen at court ; and after the
death of Alexander, when the inhuman Maximin dis-
charged his fury on the favourites and servants of his
unfortunate henefactor, a great number of Christians,
of every rank, and of both sexes, were involved in the
promiscuous massacre, which, on their account, has
improperly received the name of Persecution.^
Notwithstanding the cruel disposition of Maximin,
the eifects of his resentment against the Christians
were of a very local and temporary nature, and the
pious Origen, who had been proscribed as a devoted
victim, was still reserved to convey the truths of the
Gospel to the ear of monarchs. He addressed several
edifying letters to the emperor Philip, to his wife, and
to his mother ; and, as soon as that prince, who was
born in the neighbourhood of Palestine, had usurped
the Imperial sceptre, the Christians acquired a friend
and a protector. The public and even partial favour
of Philip towards the sectaries of the new religion, and
his constant reverence for the ministers of the church,
irave some colour to the suspicion, which prevailed in
liis own times, that the emperor himself was become a
convert to the faith ; ^^ and afforded some grounds for
a fable which was afterwards invented, that he had
^3 It may be presumed that the success of the Christians had
exasperated the increasing bigotry of the Pagans. Dion Cassius,
who composed his history under the former reign, had most
probably intended for the use of his master those counsels of
persecution which he ascribes to a better age and to the favourite
of Augustus.
69 The mention of those princes who were publicly supposed
to be Christians, as we find it in an epistle of Dionysius of
Alexandria (ap. Euseb. 1. vii. c. lo), evidently alludes to Philip
and his family, and forms a contemporary evidence that such
a report had prevailed ; but the Egyptian bishop, who lived at
an humble distance from the court of Rome, expresses himself
with a becoming diffidence concerning tiie truth of the fact. The
epistles of Origen (which were extant in the time of Eusebius,
see 1. vi. c. 36) would most probably decide this curious, rather
than important, question.
VOL. U. E
130 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
been purified by confession and penance from the
guilt contracted by the murder of his innocent pre-
decessor. The fall of Philip introduced, with the
chanofe of masters, a new system of government, so
oppressive to the Christians that their former condition,
ever since the time of Domitiau, was represented as a
state of perfect freedom and security, if compared with
the rigorous treatment which they experienced under
the short reign of Decius. The virtues of that prince
will scarcely allow us to expect that he was actuated
by a mean resentment against the favourites of his
predecessor, and it is more reasonable to believe that,
in the prosecution of his general design to restore the
purity of Roman manners, he was desirous of delivering
the empire from what he condemned as a recent and
criminal superstition. The bishops of the most con-
siderable cities were removed by exile or death ; the
vigilance of the magistrates prevented the clergy of
Rome during sixteen mouths from proceeding to a
new election ; and it was the opinion of the Christians
that the emperor would more patiently endure a com-
petitor for the purple than a bishop in the capital."*^
Were it possible to suppose that the penetration of
Decius had discovered pride under the disguise of
humility, or that he could foresee the temporal dominion
which might insensibly arise from the claims of spiritual
authority, we might be less surprised that he should
consider the successors of St. Peter as the most formid-
able rivals to those of Augustus.
The administration of Valerian was distinguished by
a levity and inconstancy, ill-suited to the gravity of
the Roman Censor. In the first part of his reign, he
surpassed in clemency those princes who had been
suspected of an attachment to the Christian faith. In
the last three years and a half, listening to the insinu-
ations of a minis-ter addicted to the superstitions of
70 The see of Rome remained vacant from the martyrdom of
Fabianus, the 20th of January, A.D. 250, till the election of
Cornelius, the 4th of June, A.D. 251. Decius had probably left.
Rome, since he was killed before the end of that year.
253-60 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 131
Egypt, he adopted the maxims, and imitated the
severity, of his predecessor Decius. The accession of
Gallienus, which increased the calamities of the empire,
restored peace to the church ; and the Christians
obtained the free exercise of their religion, by an edict
addressed to the bishops and conceived in such terms
as seemed to acknowledge their office and public
character. The ancient laws, without being formally
repealed, were suffered to sink into oblivion ; and
(excepting only some hostile intentions which are
attributed to the emperor Aurelian) the disciples of
Christ passed above forty years in a state of prosperity,
far more dangerous to their virtue than the severest
trials of persecution.
The story of Paul of Samosata, who filled the metro-
politan see of Antioch, while the East was in the hands
of Odenathus and Zenobia, may serve to illustrate the
condition and character of the times. The wealth of
that prelate was a sufficient evidence of his guilt, since
it was neither derived from the inheritance of his
fathers nor acquired by the arts of honest industry.
But Paul considered the service of the church as a very
lucrative profession."^ His ecclesiastical jurisdiction
was venal and rapacious ; he extorted frequent contri-
butions from the most opulent of the faithful, and
converted to his own use a considerable part of the
public revenue. By his pride and luxury the Christian
religion was rendered odious in the eyes of the Gentiles.
His council chamber and his throne, the splendour
with which he appeared in public, the suppliant crowd
who solicited his attention, the multitude of letters
and petitions to which he dictated his answers, and
the perpetual hurry of business in which he was in-
^ Paul was better pleased with the title of Ducenarius, than
with that of bishop. The Ducenarius was an Imperial pro-
curator, so called from his salary of two hundred Sestertia, or
_^i6oo a year. Some critics suppose that the bishop of Antioch
had actually obtained such an office from Zenobia, while others
consider it only as a figurative expression of his pomp and
insolence.
132 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
volved, were circumstances much better suited to the
state of a civil magistrate "^'^ than to the humility of a
primitive bishop. AFhen he harangued his people
from the pulpit, Paul affected the figurative style and
the theatrical gestures of an Asiatic sophist, while the
cathedral resounded with the loudest and most extrava-
gant acclamations in the praise of his divine eloquence.
Against those who resisted his power, or refused to
flatter his vanity, the prelate of Antioch was arrogant,
rigid, and inexorable ; but he relaxed the discipline,
and lavished the treasures, of the church on his de-
pendent clergy, who were permitted to imitate their
master in the gratification of every sensual appetite.
For Paul indulged himself very freely in the pleasures
of the table, and he had received into the episcopal
palace two young and beautiful women, as the constant
companions of his leisure moments.''^
Notwithstanding these scandalous vices, if Paul of
Samosata had preserved the purity of the orthodox
faith, his reign over the capital of Syria would have
ended only with his life ; and, had a seasonable perse-
cution intervened, an effort of courage might perhaps
have placed him in the rank of saints and martyrs.
Some nice and subtle errors, which he imprudently
adopted and obstinately maintained, concerning the
doctrine of the Trinity, excited the zeal and indigna-
tion of the eastern churches.*"* From Egypt to the
Euxine sea, the bishops were in arms and in motion.
'2 Simony was not unknown in those times ; and the clergy
sometimes bought what they intended to sell. It appears that
the bishopric of Carthage was purchased by a wealthy matron,
named Lucilla, for her servant Majorinus. The price was 400
Folles. Every Follis contained 125 pieces of silver, and the
whole sum may be computed at about ^2400.
"3 If vi'e are desirous of extenuating the vices of Paul, we
must suspect the assembled bishops of the East of publishing
the most malicious calumnies in circular epistles addressed to
all the churches of the empire.
7-1 His heresy (like those of Noetus and Sabellius, in the same
century) tended to confound the mysterious distinction of the
divine persons.
253-60 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 133
Several councils were held, confutations were pub-
lished, excommunications were pronounced, ambiguous
explanations were by turns accepted and refused,
treaties were concluded and violated, and, at length,
Paul of Samosata was degraded from his episcopal
character, by the sentence of seventy or eighty bishops,
who assembled for that purpose at Antioch, and who,
without consulting the rights of the clergy or people,
appointed a successor by their own authority. The
manifest irregularity of this proceeding increased the
numbers of the discontented faction ; and as Paul, who
was no stranger to the arts of courts, had insinuated
himself into the favour of Zenobia, he maintained
above four years the possession of the episcopal house
and office. The victory of Aurelian changed the face
of the East, and the two contending parties, who
applied to each other the epithets of schism and
heresy, were either commanded or permitted to plead
their cause before the tribunal of the conqueror. This
public and very singular trial affords a convincing
proof that the existence, the property, the privileges,
and the internal policy of the Christians were acknow-
ledged, if not by the laws, at least by the magistrates,
of the empire. As a Pagan and as a soldier, it could
scarcely be expected that Aurelian should enter into
the discussion, whether the sentiments of Paul or
those of his adversaries were most agreeable to the
true standard of the orthodox faith. His determina-
tion, however, was founded on the general principles
of equity and reason. He considered the bishops of
Italy as the most impartial and respectable judges
among the Christians, and, as soon as he was informed
that they had unanimously approved the sentence of
the council, he acquiesced in their opinion, and im-
mediately gave orders that Paul should be compelled
to relinquish the temporal possessions belonging to an
office of which, in the judgment of his brethren, he
had been regularly deprived. But, while we applaud
the justice, we should not overlook the policy, of
Aurelian ; who was desirous of restoring and cement-
134 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
ing the dependence of the provinces on the capital
by every means which could bind the interest or pre-
judices of any part of his subjects.
Amidst the frequent revolutions of the empire^ the
Christians still flourished in peace and prosperity ;
and, notwithstanding a celebrated aera of martyrs has
been deduced from the accession of Diocletian,"^ the
new system of policy, introduced and maintained by
the wisdom of that prince, continued, during more
than eighteen years, to breathe the mildest and most
liberal spirit of religious toleration. The mind of Dio-
cletian himself was less adapted indeed to speculative in-
quiries than to the active labours of war and government.
His prudence rendered him averse to any great innova-
tion, and, though his temper was not very susceptible
of zeal or enthusiasm, he al^vays maintained an habitual
regard for the ancient deities of the empire. But the
leisure of the two empresses, of his wife Prisca and of
Valeria his daughter, permitted them to listen with
more attention and respect to the truths of Christianity,
which in every age has acknowledged its important
obligations to female devotion. Tlie principal eunuchs,
Lucian and Dorotheus, Gorgonius and Andrew, who
attended the person, possessed the favour, and governed
the household of Diocletian, protected by their power-
ful influence the faith which they had embraced. Their
example was imitated by many of the most considerable
officers of the palace, who, in their respective stations,
had the care of the Imperial ornaments, of the robes,
of the furniture, of the jewels, and even of the private
treasury ; and, though it might sometimes be incumbent
on them to accompany the emperor when he sacrificed
in the temple, they enjoyed, with their wives, their
children, and their slaves, the free exercise of the
Christian religion. Diocletian and his colleagues
frequently conferred the most important oflices on
75 The aera of Martyrs, which is still in use among the
Copts and the Abyssinians, must be reckoned from the 29th
of August, A.D, 284; as the beginning of the Egyptian year
was nineteen days earlier than the real accession of Diocletian.
270-74 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 135
those persons who avowed their abhorrence for the
worship of the gods^ but who had displayed abilities
proper for the service of the state. The bishops held
an honourable rank in their respective provinces^ and
were treated with distinction and respect, not only by
the people, but by the magistrates themselves. Almost
in every city, the ancient churches were found insuffi-
cient to contain the increasing multitude of proselytes ;
and in their place more stately and capacious edifices
were erected for the public worship of the faithful.
(The corruption of manners and principles, so forcibly
lamented by Eusebius, may be considered, not only
as a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which
the Christians enjoyed and abused under the reign
of Diocletian.J[ Prosperity had relaxed the nerves
of discipline. jJFraud, envy, and malice prevailed in
every congregation^ The presbyters aspired to the
episcopal office, ivhich every day became an object
more worthy of their ambition. Tlie bishops, who
contended with each other for ecclesiastical pre-emi-
nence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secular
and tyrannical power in the church ; and the lively
faith which still distinguished the Christians from the
Gentiles was shown much less in their lives than in
their controversial writings.
Notwithstanding this seeming security, an attentive
observer might discern some symptoms that threatened
the church with a more violent persecution than any
which she had yet endured. Tlie zeal and rapid pro-
gress of the Christians awakened the Polytheists from
their supine indiiference in the cause of those deities
whom custom and education had taught them to revere.
The mutual provocations of a religious war, which
had already continued above two hundred years, ex-
asperated the animosity of the contending parties.
The Pagans were incensed at the rashness of a recent
and obscure sect which presumed to accuse their
countrymen of error and to devote their ancestors to
eternal misery. The habits of justifying the popular
mythology against the invectives of an implacable
136 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
enemy produced in their minds some sentiments of
faith and reverence for a system which they had been
accustomed to consider with the most careless levity.
The supernatural powers assumed by the church in-
spired at the same time terror and emulation. The
followers of the established religion intrenched them-
selves behind a similar fortification of prodigies ; in-
vented new modes of sacrifice, of expiation, and of
initiation ; ''^ attempted to revive the credit of their
expiring oracles ; ''^ and listened with eager credulity
to every impostor who flattered their prejudices by a
tale of wonders."^ Both parties seemed to acknowledge
the truth of those miracles which were claimed by
their adversaries ; and, while they were contented with
ascribing them to the arts of magic and to the power
of daemons, they mutually concurred in restoring and
establishing the reign of superstition."^ Philosophy,
her most dangerous enemy, was now converted into
her most useful ally. The groves of the academy,
the gardens of Epicurus, and even the portico of the
7^6 We might quote, among a great number of instances, the
mysterious worship of Mithras, and the Taurobolia ; the latter
of which became fashionable in the time of the Antonines (see
a Dissertation of M. de Boze, in the Mdmoires de I'Acaddmie
des Inscriptions, torn. ii. p. 443). The romance of Apuleius is
as full of devotion as of satire.
■^ The impostor Alexander very strongly recommended the
oracle of Trophonius at Mallos, and those of Apollo at Claros
and Miletus. The last of these, whose singular history would
furnish a very curious episode, was consulted by Diocletian
before he published his edicts of persecution.
'^s Besides the ancient stories of Pythagoras and Aristeas,
the cures performed at the shrine of .^sculapius and the fables
related of ApoUonius of Tyana were frequently opposed to the
miracles of Christ ; though I agree with Dr. Lardner that,
when Philostratus composed the life of ApoUonius, he had no
sUch intention.
"5 It is seriously to be lamented that the Christian fathers,
by acknowledging the supernatural or, as they deem it, the
infernal part of Paganism, destroy with their own hands the
great advantage which we might otherwise derive from the
liberal concessions of our adversaries.
284-393 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 137
Stoics, were almost deserted, as so many different
schools of scepticism or impiety ; ^° and many among
the Romans were desirous that the writing's of Cicero
should be condemned and suppressed by the authority
of the senate. ITie prevailing sect of the new
Platonicians judged it prudent to connect themselves
with the priests, whom perhaps they despised, against
the Christians, whom they had reason to fear. These
fashionable philosophers prosecuted the design of ex-
tracting allegorical wisdom from the fictions of the
Greek poets ; instituted mysterious rites of devotion
for the use of their chosen disciples ; recommended
the worship of the ancient gods as the emblems or
ministers of the Supreme Deity, and composed against
the faith of the Gospel many elaborate treatises,^^
which have since been committed to the flames by the
prudence of orthodox emperors.
Although the policy of Diocletian and the humanity
of Constantius inclined them to preserv^e inviolate the
maxims of toleration, it was soon discovered that their
two associates Maximian and Galerius entertained the
most implacable aversion for the name and religion of
the Christians. The minds of those princes had never
been enlightened by science ; education had never
softened their temper. Tliey owed their greatness to
their swords, and in their most elevated fortune they
still retained their superstitious prejudices of soldiers
and peasants. In the general administration of the
provinces they obeyed the laws which their benefactor
had established ; but they frequently found occasions
of exercising within their camp and palaces a secret
30 Julian expresses a pious joy that the providence of the
gods had extinguished the impious sects, and for the most
part destroyed the books of the Pyrrhonians and Epicureans,
which had been very numerous, since Epicurus himself com-
posed no less than 300 volumes,
SI Lactantius (Divin, Institut. 1. v. c. 2, 3) gives a very clear
and spirited account of two of these philosophic adversaries of
the faith. The large treatise of Porphyry against the Christians
consisted of thirty books, and was composed in Sicily about
the year 270.
VOL. II. B 2
138 THE DECLINE AND FALL
persecution/^ for which the imprudent zeal of the
Christians sometimes offered the most specious pre-
tences. A sentence of death was executed upon
Maximilianus, an African youth, who had been pro-
duced by his own father before the magistrate as a
sufficient and legal recruit^butwho obstinately persisted
in declaring- that his conscience would not permit him
to embrace the profession of a soldier.^^ It could
scarcely be expected that any government should suffer
the action of Marcellus the centurion to pass with
impunity. On the day of a public festival, that officer
threw away his belt, his arms, and the ensigns of his
office, and exclaimed with a loud voice that he would
obey none but Jesus Christ the eternal King, and that he
renounced for ever the use of carnal weapons and the
service of an idolatrous master. The soldiers, as soon
as they recovered from their astonishment, secured
the person of Marcellus. He was examined in the
city of Tingi by the president of that part of Mauritania ;
and, as he was convicted by his own confession, he
was condemned and beheaded for the crime of desertion.
Examples of such a nature savour much less of religious
persecution than of martial or even civil law : but they
served to alienate the mind of the emperors, to justify
the severity of Galerius, who dismissed a great number
of Christian officers from their employments, and to
82 Eusebius, 1. viii. c. 4. c. 17. He limits the number of
military martyrs by a remarkable expression (cnrav^wj tovtuu
eh irov Kal Sevrepos), of which neither his Latin nor French
translations have rendered the energy. Notwithstanding the
authority of Eusebius, and the silence of Lactantius, Ambrose,
Sulpicius, Orosius, &c. it has been long believed that the
Theb^an legion, consisting of 6000 Christians, suffered martyr-
dom, by the order of Maximian, in the valley of the Pennine
Alps. The story was first published about the middle of the
fifth century by Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, who received it
from certain persons, who received it from Isaac, bishop of
Geneva, who is said to have received it from Theodore, bishop
of Octodurum. The abbey of St. Maurice still subsists, a rich
monument of the credulity of Sigismund, king of Burgundy.
83 The accounts of his martyrdom and of that of Marcellus
bear every mark of truth and authenticity.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 139
authorise the opinion that a sect of enthusiasts which
avowed principles so repug-nant to the public safety-
must either remain useless, or would soon become
dangerous, subjects of the empire.
After the success of the Persian war had raised the
hopes and the reputation of Galerius, he passed a winter
with Diocletian in the palace of Nicomedia ; and the
fate of Christianity became the object of their secret
consultations.^'* The experienced emperor was still
inclined to pursue measures of lenity ; and, though he
readily consented to exclude the Christians from hold-
ing any employments in the household or the army,
lie urged in the strongest terms the danger as well as
cruelty of shedding the blood of those deluded fanatics.
Galerius at length extorted from him the permission
of summoning a council, composed of a few persons
the most distinguished in the civil and military depart-
ments of the state. The important question was agi-
tated in their presence, and those ambitious courtiers
easily discerned that it was incumbent on them to
second, by their eloquence, the importunate violence
of the Caesar. It may be presumed that they insisted
on every topic which might interest the pride, the
piety, or the fears, of their sovereign in the destruc-
tion of Christianity. Perhaps they represented that
the glorious work of the deliverance of the empire was
left imperfect, as long as an independent people was
permitted to subsist and multiply in the heart of the
provinces. The Christians (it might speciously be
alleged), renouncing the gods and the institutions of
Rome, had constituted a distinct republic, whicli might
yet be suppressed before it had acquired any military
force ; but which was already governed by its own
laws and magistrates, was possessed of a public treasure,
and was intimately connected in all its parts by the
frequent assemblies of the bishops, to whose decrees
84 Lactantius (or whoever was the author of this little treatise)
was, at that time, an inhabitant of Nicomedia ; but it seems
difficult to conceive how he could acquire so accurate a know-
ledge of what passed in the Imperial cabinet.
140 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
their numerous and opulent congregations yielded an
implicit obedience. Arguments like these may seem
to have determined the reluctant mind of Diocletian
to embrace a new system of persecution : but^ though
we may suspect, it is not in our power to relate, the
secret intrigues of the palace, the private views and
resentments, the jealousy of women or eunuchs, and
all those trifling but decisive causes which so often
influence the fate of empires and the councils of the
wisest monarchs.®^
The pleasure of the emperors was at length signified
to the Christians, who, during the course of this
melancholy winter, had expected, with anxiety, the
result of so many secret consultations. Tlie twenty-
third of February, which coincided with the Roman
festival of the Terminalia, was appointed (whether
from accident or design) to set bounds to the progress
of Christianity. At the earliest dawn of day, the
Praetorian praefect,^^ accompanied by several generals,
tribunes, and officers of the revenue, repaired to the
principal church of Nicomedia, which was situated on
an eminence in the most populous and beautiful part
of the city. The doors was instantly broken open ;
they rushed into the sanctuary ; and, as they searched
in vain for some visible object of worship, they were
obliged to content themselves with committing to the
flames the volumes of holy scripture. The ministers
of Diocletian were followed by a numerous body of
guards and pioneers, who marched in order of battle,
and were provided with all the instruments used in
the destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant
85 The only circumstance which we can discover is the devo-
tion and jealousy of the mother of Galerius. She is described
by Lactantius as Deorum montium cultrix ; mulier admodum
superstitiosa. She had a great influence over her son, and was
offended by the disregard of some of her Christian servants.
8« In our only MS. of Lactantius, we read profectus ; but
reason and the authority of all the critics allow us, instead of
that word, which destroys the sense of the passage, to substitute
prafectus.
303 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 141
labour, a sacred edifice, which towered above the Im-
perial palace, and had long excited the indignation
and envy of the Gentiles, was in a few hours levelled
with the ground.
The next day the general edict of persecution was
published ; and, though Diocletian, still averse to
the effusion of blood, had moderated the fury of
Galerius, who proposed that every one refusing to offer
sacrifice should immediately be burnt alive, the penalties
inflicted on the osbtinacy of the Christians might be
deemed sufficiently rigorous and effectual. It was
enacted that their churches, in all the provinces of
the empire, should be demolished to their foundations ;
and the punishment of death was denounced against
all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies
for the purpose of religious worship. The philosophers,
who now assumed the unworthy office of directing the
blind zeal of persecution, had diligently studied the
nature and genius of the Christian religion ; and, as
they were not ignorant that the speculative doctrines
of the faith were supposed to be contained in the
writings of the prophets, of the evangelists, and of the
apostles, they most probably suggested the order that
the bishops and presbyters should deliver all their
sacred books into the hands of the magistrates ; who
were commanded, under the severest penalties, to burn
them in a public and solemn manner. By the same
edict, the property of the church was at once con-
fiscated ; and the several parts of which it might con-
sist were either sold to the highest bidder, united
to the Imperial domain, bestowed on the cities and
corporations, or granted to the solicitations of rapacious
courtiers. After taking such effectual measures to
abolish the worship, and to dissolve the government
of the Christians, it was thought necessary to subject
to the most intolerable hardships the condition of
those perverse individuals who should still reject the
religion of Nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors.
Persons of a liberal birth were declared incapable of
holding any honours or employments ; slaves were
142 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
for ever deprived of the hopes of freedom, and the
whole body of the people were put out of the protec-
tion of the law. The judges were authorised to hear
and to determine every action that was brought against
a Christian. But the Christians were not permitted to
complain of any injury which they themselves had
suffered ; and thus those unfortunate sectaries were
exposed to the severity, while they were excluded from
the benefits, of public justice. This new species of
martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and
ignominious, was, perhaps, the most proper to weary
the constancy of the faithful ; nor can it be doubted
that the passions and interest of mankind were disposed
on this occasion to second the designs of the emperors.
But the policy of a well-ordered government must
sometimes have interposed on behalf of the oppressed
Christians ; nor was it possible for the Roman princes
entirely to remove the apprehension of punishment,
or to connive at every act of fraud and violence, with-
out exposing their own authority and the rest of their
subjects to the most alarming dangers. ^^
This edict was scarcely exhibited to the public view,
in the most conspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it
was torn down by the hands of a Christian, who ex-
pressed, at the same time, by the bitterest invectives,
his contempt as well as abhorrence for such impious
and tyrannical governors. His offence, according to
the mildest laws, amounted to treason, and deserved
death. And, if it be true that he was a person of rank
and education, those circumstances could serve only
to aggravate his guilt. He was burnt, or rather
roasted, by a slow fire ; and his executioners, zealous
to revenge the personal insult which^ had been offered
to the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty,
without being able to subdue his patience, or to alter
the steady and insulting smile which, in his dying
agonies he still preserved in his countenance. The
87 Many ages afterwards, Edward I. practised with great
success the same mode of persecution against the clergy of
England.
303 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 143
Christians, though they confessed that his conduct
had not been strictly conformable to the laws of
prudence, admired the divine fervour of his zeal ; and
the excessive commendations which they lavished on
the memory of their hero and martyr contributed to
fix a deep impression of terror and hatred in the mind
of Diocletian.
His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger
from which he very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen
days the palace of Nicomedia, and even the bed-
chamber of Diocletian, were twice in riames ; and,
though both times they were extinguished without any
material damage, the singular repetition of the fire
was justly considered as an evident proof that it had
not been the effect of chance or negligence. Tlie
suspicion naturally fell on the Christians ; and it was
suggested, with some degree of probability, that those
desperate fanatics, provoked by their present sufferings
and apprehensive of impending calamities, had entered
into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the
eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two emperors,
whom they detested as the irreconcilable enemies of
the church of God. Jealousy and resentment prevailed
in every breast, but especially in that of Diocletian.
A great number of persons, distinguished either by
the offices which they had filled or by the favour which
they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison. Every
mode of torture was put in practice, and the court,
as well as city, was polluted with many bloody execu-
tions. But, as it was found impossible to extort
any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it seems
incumbent on us either to presume the innocence, or
to admire the resolution, of the sufferers. A few days
afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from
Nicomedia, declaring that, if he delayed his departure
from that devoted palace, he should fall a sacrifice to
the rage of the Christians. The ecclesiastical historians,
from whom alone we derive a partial and imperfect
knowledge of this persecution, are at a loss how to
account for the fears and dangers of the emperors.
144 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
Two of these writers, a Prince and a Rhetorician,
were eye-witnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. The one
ascribes it to lightning and the divine wrath ; the
other affirms that it was kindled by the malice of
Galerius himself.
As the edict against the Christians was designed for
a general law of the whole empire, and as Diocletian
and Galerius, though they might not wait for the
consent, were assured of the concurrence, of the
western princes, it would appear more consonant to
our ideas of policy that the governors of all the pro-
vinces should have received secret instructions to
publish, on one and the same day, this declaration of
war within their respective departments. It was at
least to be expected that the convenience of the public
highways and established posts would have enabled
the emperors to transmit their orders with the utmost
despatch from the palace of Nicomedia to the extremities
of the Roman world ; and that they would not have
sufi'ered fifty days to elapse before the edict was
published in Syria, and near four months before it
was signified to the cities of Africa. This delay
may perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper of
Diocletian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the
measures of persecution, and who was desirous of
trying the experiment under his more immediate eye,
before he gave why to the disorders and discontent
which it must inevitablj' occasion in the distant pro-
vinces. At first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained
from the efiusion of blood ; but the use of every other
severity was permitted and even recommended to their
zeal ; nor could the Christians, though they cheerfully
resigned the ornaments of their churches, resolve to
interrupt their religious assemblies or to deliver their
sacred books to the flames. The pious obstinacy of
Felix, an African bishop, appears to have embarrassed
the subordinate ministers of the government. The
curator of his city sent him in chains to the proconsul.
The proconsul transmitted him to the Praetorian pre-
fect of Italy ; and Felix, who disdained even to give
303 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE 145
an evasive answer, was at length beheaded at Venusia,
in Lucania, a place on which the birth of Horace has
conferred fame. This precedent, and perhaps some
Imperial rescript, which was issued in consequence of
it, appeared to authorise the g'overnors of provinces in
punishing wdth death the refusal of the Christians to
deliver up their sacred books. There were undoubtedly
many persons who embraced this opportunity of ob-
taining the crown of martyrdom ; but there were like-
wise too many who purchased an ignominious life by
discovering and betraying the holy scripture into the
hands of infidels. A great number even of bishops
and presbyters acquired, by this criminal compliance,
the opprobrious epithet of Traditors ; and their offence
was productive of much present scandal, and of much
future discord, in tlie African church.
The copies, as well as the versions, of scripture were
already so multiplied in the empire that the most
severe inquisition could no longer be attended with
any fatal consequences ; and even the sacrifice of those
volumes which, in every congregation, were preserved
for public use required the consent of some treacherous
and unworthy Christians. But the ruin of the churches
was easily effected by the authority of the government
and by the labour of the Pagans. In some provinces,
however, the magistrates contented themselves with
shutting up the places of religious worship. In others,
they more literally complied with the tenns of the
edict ; and, after taking away the doors, the benches,
and the pulpit, which they burnt, as it were in a funeral
pile, they completely demolished the remainder of the
edifice. ^^ It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion
88 The ancient monuments, published at the end of Optatus,
p. 261, &c. describe, in a very circumstantial manner, the pro-
ceedings of the governors in the destruction of churches. They
made a minute inventory of the plate, &c. which they found in
them. That of the Church of Cirta, in Numidia, is still extant.
It consisted of two cnalices of gold, and six of silver ; six urns,
one kettle, seven lamps, all likewise of silver ; besides a large
quantity of brass utensils, and wearing apparel.
146 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
that we should apply a very remarkable story^ which
is related with so many circumstances of variety and
improbability that it serves rather to excite than to
satisfy our curiosity. In a small town in Phryj^a, of
whose name as well as situation we are left ignorant,
it should seem that the magistrates and the body of
the people had embraced the Christian faith ; and, as
some resistance might be apprehended to the execution
of the edict, the governor of the province was supported
by a numerous detachment of legionaries. On their
approach the citizens threw themselves into the church,
with the resolution either of defending by arms that
sacred edifice or of perishing in its ruins. They in-
dignantly rejected the notice and permission which
was given them to retire, till the soldiers, provoked
by their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on
ail sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of
martyrdom, a great number of Phrygians, with their
wives and children.^^
Some slight disturbances, though they were sup-
pressed almost as soon as excited, in Syria and the
frontiers of Armenia, afforded the enemies of the
church a very plausible occasion to insinuate that
those troubles had been secretly fomented by the
intrigues of the bishops, who had already forgotten
their ostentatious professions of passive and unlimited
obedience. The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian
at length transported him beyond the bounds of
moderation which he had hitherto preserved, and he
declared, in a series of cruel edicts, his intention of
abolishing the Christian name. By the first of these
edicts, the governors of the provinces were directed to
89 Lactantius (Institut. Divin. v. ii) confines the calamity to
the conve?iiiculum, with its congregation. Eusebius (viii. ii)
extends it to a whole city, and introduces something very like a
regular siege. His ancient Latin translator, Rufinus, adds the
irnportant circumstance of the permission given to the inhabi-
tants of retiring from thence. As Phrygia reached to the
confines of Isauria, it is possible that the restless temper of
those independent Barbarians may have contributed to this
misfortune.
303-4 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 147
apprehend all persons of the ecclesiastical order ; and
the prisons, destined for the vilest criminals, were
soon filled with a multitude of bishops, presbyters,
deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a second edict,
the magistrates were commanded to employ every
method of severity which might reclaim them from
their odious superstition and oblige them to return to
the established worship of the gods. This rigorous
order was extended by a subsequent edict to the whole
body of Christians, who were exposed to a violent
and general persecution. Instead of those salutary
restraints, which had required the direct and solemn
testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as well
as the interest of the Imperial officers to discover, to
pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the
faithful. Heavy penalties were denounced against all
who should presume to save a proscribed sectary from
the just indignation of the gods, and of the emperors.
Yet, notwithstanding the severity of this law, the
virtuous courage of many of the Pagans, in concealing
their friends or relations, affords an honourable proof
that the rage of superstition had not extinguished in
their minds the sentiments of nature and humanity.
Diocletian had no sooner published his edicts against
the Christians than, as if he had been desirous of
committing to other hands the work of persecution,
he divested himself of the Imperial purple. The char-
acter and situation of his colleagues and successors
sometimes urged them to enforce, and sometimes in-
clined them to suspend the execution of these rigorous
laws ; nor can we acquire a just and distinct idea of
this important period of ecclesiastical history, unless
we separately consider the state of Christianity, in the
different parts of the empire, during the space of
ten years, which elapsed between the first edicts of
Diocletian and the final peace of the church.
The mild and humane temper of Constantius was
averse to the oppression of any part of his subjects.
The principal offices of his palace were exercised by
Christians. He loved their persons, esteemed their
148 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
fidelity, and entertained not any dislike to their re-
ligious principles. But, as long- as Constantius re-
mained in the subordinate station of Csesar, it was
not in his power openly to reject the edicts of Dio-
cletian or to disobey the commands of Maximian. His
authority contributed, however, to alleviate the suffer-
ings which he pitied and abhorred. He consented,
with reluctance, to the ruin of the churches ; but he
ventured to protect the Christians themselves from the
fury of the populace and from the rigour of the laws.
The provinces of Gaul (under which we may probably
include those of Britain) were indebted for the singular
tranquillity which they enjoyed to the gentle inter-
position of their sovereign. But Datianus, the president
or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy,
chose rather to execute the public edicts of the emperors
than to understand the secret intentions of Constantius ;
and it can scarcely be doubted that his provincial
administration was stained with the blood of a few
martyrs.^ The elevation of Constantius to the supreme
and independent dignity of Augustus gave a free scope
to the exercise of his virtues, and the shortness of his
reign did not prevent him from establishing a system
of toleration, of which he left the precept and the
example to his sou Constantine. His fortunate son,
from the first moment of his accession declaring him-
self the protector of the church, at length deserved
the appellation of the first emperor who publicly pro-
fessed and established the Christian religion. The
motives of his conversion, as they may variously be
deduced from benevolence, from policy, from con-
w Datianus is mentioned in Gruter's Inscriptions, as having
determined the limits between the territories of Pax Julia, and
those of Ebora, both cities in the southern part of Lusitania.
If we recollect the neighbourhood of those places to Cape St.
Vincent, we may suspect that the celebrated deacon and martyr
of that name has been inaccurately assigned by Prudentius, &c.
to Saragossa, or Valencia. Some critics are of opinion that the
department of Constantius, as Caesar, did not include Spain,
which still continued under the immediate jurisdiction of
Maximian.
303-4 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 149
viction^ or from remorse ; and the progress of the
revolution which^ under his powerful influence, and
that of his sons, rendered Christianity the reigning
religion of the Roman empire, will form a very
interesting and important chapter in the second volume
of this history. At present it may be sufficient to
observe that every victory of Constantine was pro-
ductive of some relief or benefit to the church.
The provinces of Italy and Africa experienced a
short but violent persecution. The rigorous edicts of
Diocletian were strictly and cheerfully executed by his
associate Maximian, who had long hated the Christians,
and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In
the autumn of the first year of the persecution, the
two emperors met at Rome to celebrate their triumph ;
several oppressive laws appear to have issued from
their secret consultations, and the diligence of the
magistrates was animated by the presence of their
sovereigns. After Diocletian had divested himself of
the purple, Italy and Africa were administered under
the name of Severus, and were exposed, without
defence, to the implacable resentment of his master
Galerius. Among the martyrs of Rome, Adauctus
deserves the notice of posterity. He was of a noble
family in Italy, and had raised himself, through the
successive honours of the palace, to the important office
of treasurer of the private demesnes. Adauctus is the
more remarkable for being the only person of rank
and distinction who appears to have suffered death
during the whole course of this general persecution.
The revolt of Maxeutius immediately restored peace
to the churches of Italy and Africa ; and the same
tyrant who oppressed every other class of his subjects
showed himself just, humane, and even partial, towards
the afflicted Christians. He depended on their gra-
titude and affection, and very naturally presumed
that the injuries which they had suffered, and the
dangers which they still apprehended from his most
inveterate enemy, would secure the fidelity of a party
already considerable by their numbers and opulence.
160 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Even the conduct of Maxentius towards the bishops of
Rome and Carthage may be considered as the proof
of his toleration, since it is probable that the most
orthodox princes would adopt the same measures with
regard to their established clergy. Marcellus, the
former of those prelates, had thrown the capital into
confusion by the severe penance which he imposed on
a great number of Christians, who, during the late
persecution, had renounced or dissembled their religion.
The rage of faction broke out in frequent and violent
seditions ; the blood of the faithful was shed by each
other's hands ; and the exile of Marcellus, whose
prudence seems to have been less eminent than his
zeal, was found to be the only measure capable of
restoring peace to the distracted church of Rome.
The behaviour of Mensurius, bishop of Carthage,
appears to have been still more reprehensible. A
deacon of that city had published a libel against the
emperor. The offender took refuge in the episcopal
palace ; and, though it was somewhat early to advance
any claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop re-
fused to deliver him up to the officers of justice. For
this treasonable resistance, Mensurius was summoned
to court, and, instead of receiving a legal sentence of
death or banishment, he was permitted, after a short
examination, to return to his diocese. Such was the
happy condition of the Christian subjects of Maxentius
that, whenever they were desirous of procuring for
their own use any bodies of martyrs, they were obliged
to purchase them from the most distant provinces of
the East. A story is related of Aglae, a Roman lady,
descended from a consular family, and possessed of so
ample an estate that it required the management of
seventy-three stewards. Among these, Boniface was
the favourite of his mistress ; and, as Aglae mixed love
with devotion, it is reported that he was admitted to
share her bed. Her fortune enabled her to gratify
the pious desire of obtaining some sacred relics from
the East. She intrusted Boniface with a considerable
sum of gold and a large quantity of aromatics ; and
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 151
her lover, attended by twelve horsemen and three
covered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage, as
far as Tarsus in Cilicia.
The sanguinary temper of Galerius, the first and
principal author of the persecution, was formidable to
those Christians whom their misfortunes had placed
within the limits of his dominions; and it may fairly
be presumed that many persons of a middle rank, who
were not confined by the chains either of wealth or
of poverty, very frequently deserted their native
country, and sought a refuge in the milder climate of
the W^est. As long as he commanded only the armies
and provinces of lllyricum, he could with difficulty
either find or make a considerable number of martyrs,
in a warlike country, which had entertained the
missionaries of the Gospel with more coldness and
reluctance than any other part of the empire.^^ But,
when Galerius had obtained the supreme power and
the government of the East, he indulged in their
fullest extent his zeal and cruelty, not only in the
provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged
his immediate jurisdiction, but in those of Syria,
Palestine, and Eg^^pt, where Maximin gratified his
own inclination by yielding a rigorous obedience to
the stern commands of his benefactor.^ The frequent
disappointments of his ambitious views, the experience
of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections
which a lingering and painful distemper suggested to
the mind of Galerius, at length convinced him that
the most violent efi"orts of despotism are insufficient to
extirpate a whole people or to subdue their religious
91 During the four first centuries there exist few traces of
either bishops or bishoprics in the western lllyricum. It has
been thought probable that the primate of Milan extended his
jurisdiction over Sirmium, the capital of that great province.
^ The eighth book of Eusebius, as well as the supplement
concerning the martyrs of Palestine, principally relate to the
persecution of Galerius and Maximin. The general lamenta-
tions with which Lactantius opens the fifth book of his Divine
Institutions allude to their cruelty.
152 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
prejudices. Desirous of repairing- the mischief that he
had occasioned, he published in his own name, and in
those of Licinius and Constantine, a general edict,
which, after a pompous recital of the Imperial titles,
proceeded in the following manner :
*' Among the important cares which have occupied
our mind for the utility and preservation of the
empire, it was our intention to correct and re-establish
all things according to the ancient laws and public
discipline of the Romans. We were particularly de-
sirous of reclaiming, into the way of reason and nature,
the deluded Christians, who had renounced the religion
and ceremonies instituted by their fathers, and, j)re-
sumptuously despising the practice of antiquity, had
invented extravagant laws and opinions, according to
the dictates of their fancy, and had collected a various
society from the different provinces of our empire.
The edicts which we have published to enforce the
worship of the gods, having exposed many of the
Christians to danger and distress, many having suffered
death, and many more, who still persist in their impious
folly, being left destitute of any public exercise of
religion, we are disposed to extend to those unhappy
men the effects of our unwonted clemency. Wq
permit them, therefore, freely to profess their private
opinions, and to assemble in their conventicles without
fear or molestation, provided always that they preserve
a due respect to the established laws and government.
By another rescript we shall signify our intentions to
the judges and magistrates ; and we hope that our
indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their
prayers to the Deity whom they adore, for our safety
and prosperity, for their own, and for that of the
republic." It is not usually in the language of edicts
and manifestoes that we should search for the real
character or the secret motives of princes ; but, as
these were the words of a dying emperor, his situation,
perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his sincerity.
"When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration,
he was well assured that Licinius would readily comply
311 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 153
with the inclinations of his friend and benefactor^ and
that any measures in favour of the Christians would
obtain the approbation of Constantine. But the em-
peror would not venture to insert in the preamble the
name of Maximin, whose consent was of the greatest
importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards
to the provinces of Asia, In the first six months, how-
ever, of his new reign, Maximin affected to adopt the
prudent counsels of his predecessor ; and, though he
Dever condescended to secure the tranquillity of the
church by a public edict, Sabinus, his Praetorian
praefect, addressed a circular letter to all the gover-
nors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating on
the Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible
obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers
of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions and to
connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts.
In consequence of these orders, great numbers of
Christians were released from prison or delivered from
the mines. The confessors, singing hymns of triumph,
returned into their own countries ; and those who had
yielded to the violence of the tempest solicited with
tears of repentance their re-admission into the bosom
of the church.
But this treacherous calm was of short duration ;
nor could the Christians of the East place any con-
fidence in the character of their sovereign. Cruelty
and superstition were the ruling passions of the soul
of Maximin. The former suggested the means, the
latter pointed out the objects, of persecution. Tlie
emperor was devoted to the worship of the gods, to
the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles. The
prophets or philosophers, whom he revered as the
favourites of heaven, were frequently raised to the
government of provinces and admitted into his most
secret counsels. They easily convinced him that the
Christians had been indebted for their victories to
their regular discipline, and that the weakness of
Polytheism had principally flowed from a want of union
and subordination among the ministers of religion. A
154 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
system of government was therefore instituted, which
was evidently copied from the policy of the church.
In all the great cities of the empire, the temples were
repaired and beautified by the order of Maximin ; and
the officiating priests of the various deities were sub-
jected to the authority of a superior pontiff, destined
to oppose the bishop and to promote the cause of
Paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in their turn,
the supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high
priests of the province, who acted as the immediate
vicegerents of the emperor himself. A white robe was
the ensign of their dignity ; and these new prelates
were carefully selected from the most noble and opulent
families. By the influence of the magistrates and of
the sacerdotal order, a great number of dutiful ad-
dresses were obtained, particularly from the cities of
Nicomedia, Antioch, and Tyre, which artfully repre-
sented the well-known intentions of the court as the
general sense of the people ; solicited the emperor to
consult the laws of justice rather than the dictates of
his clemency ; expressed their abhorrence of the Chris-
tians ; and humbly prayed that those impious sectaries
might at least be excluded from the limits of their
respective territories. The answer of Maximin to the
address which he obtained from the citizens of Tyre
is still extant. He praises their zeal and devotion
in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants on the
obstinate impiety of the Christians, and betrays, by
the readiness with which he consents to their banish-
ment, that he considered himself as receiving, rather
than as conferring, an obligation. The priests, as well
as the magistrates, were empowered to enforce the
execution of his edicts, which were engraved on tables
of brass ; and, though it was recommended to them to
avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and igno-
minious punishments were inflicted on the refractory
Christians.
The Asiatic Christians had everything to dread from
the severity of a bigoted monarch, who prepared his
measures of violence with such deliberate policy. But
312 OF THE ROMAxV EMPIRE 155
a few months had scarcely elapsed before the edicts
published bv the two western emperors obliged Maximin
to suspend the prosecution of his designs : the civil
war, which he so rashly undertook against Licinius,
employed all his attention ; and the defeat and death
of iVIaximin soon delivered the church from the last
and most implacable of her enemies. ^^
In this general view of the persecution, which was
first authorised by the edicts of Diocletian, I have pur-
posely refrained from describing the particular sufferings
and deaths of the Christian martyrs. It would have
been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from
the declamations of Lactantius, and from the most
ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid and dis-
gustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and
scourges, with iron hooks, and red-hot beds, and with
all the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage
beasts and more savage executioners, could indict on
the human body. These melancholy scenes might be
enlivened by a crowd of visions and miracles destined
either to delay the death, to celebrate the triumph,
or to discover the relics, of those canonised saints
who suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannot
determine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied
how much I ought to believe. The gravest of the
ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly
confesses that he has related whatever might redound
to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could
tend to the disgrace, of religion. ^^ Such an acknow-
93 A few days before his death, he published a very ample
edict of toleration, in which he imputes all the severities which
the Christians suffered to the judges and governors, who had
misunderstood his intentions.
9^ Such is ihefair deduction from two remarkable passages
in Eusebius, 1. viii. c. 2, and de Martyr. Palestin. c. 12. The
prudence of the historian has exposed his own character to
censure and suspicion. It is well known that he himself had
been thrown into prison ; and it was suggested that he had
purchased his deliverance by some dishonourable compliance.
The reproach was urged in his lifetime, and even in his.presence,
at the council of Tvre.
166 THE DECLINE AND FALL
ledgment will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer
who has so openly violated one of the fundamental
laws of history has not paid a very strict reg-ard to the
observance of the other ; and the suspicion will derive
additional credit from the character of Eusebiua^ which
was less tinctured with credulity, and more practised
in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his
contemporaries. On some particular occasions, when
the magfistrates were exasperated by some personal
motives of interest or resentment, when the zeal of the
martyrs urged them to forget the rules of prudence,
and perhaps of decency, to overturn the altars, to pour
out imprecations against the emperors, or to strike the
judge as he sat on his tribunal, it may be presumed
that every mode of torture, which cruelty could invent
or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those
devoted victims.^^ Two circumstances, however, have
been unwarily mentioned, which insinuate that the
general treatment of the Christians who had been
apprehended by the officers of justice was less intoler-
able than it is usually imagined to have been. 1. The
confessors who were condemned to work in the mines
were permitted, by the humanity or the negligence of
their keepers, to build chapels and freely to profess
their religion in the midst of those dreary habitations.
2. The bishops were obliged to check and to censure
the forward zeal of the Christians, who voluntarily
threw themselves into the hands of the magistrates.
Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and
debts, who blindly sought to terminate a miserable
existence by a glorious death. Others were allured by
the hope that a short confinement would expiate the
sins of a whole life ; and others, again, were actuated
by the less honourable motive of deriving a plentiful
subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit, from the
alms which the charity of the faithful bestowed on the
85 The ancient, and perhaps authentic, account of the suffer-
ings of Tarachus and his companions is filled with strong
expressions of resentment and contempt, which could not fail
of irritating the magistrate.
OF THE ROALIN EMPIRE 157
prisoners.^ After the church had triumphed over all
her enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the
captives prompted them to magnify the merit of their
respective suffering. A convenient distance of time
or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction ;
and the frequent instances which might be alleged of
holy martyrs^ whose wounds had been instantly healed,
whose strength had been renewed, and whose lost
members had miraculously been restored, were ex-
tremely convenient for the purpose of removing every
difficulty and of silencing every objection. The most
extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honour of
the church, were applauded by the credulous multitude,
countenanced by the power of the clergy, and attested
by the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history.
The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment,
of pain and torture, are so easily exaggerated or
softened by the pencil of an artful orator that we are
naturally induced to inquire into a fact of a more
distinct and stubborn kind ; the number of persons
who suffered death, in consequence of the edicts
published by Diocletian, his associates, and his suc-
cessors. The recent legendaries record whole armies
and cities, which were at once swept away by the un-
distinguishing rage of persecution. The more ancient
writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal
effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without con-
descending to ascertain the precise number of those
persons who were permitted to seal with their blood
their belief of the i^rospel. From the history of Eusebius,
it may however be collected that only nine bishops
were punished with death ; and we are assured, by his
particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine,
that no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled
to thathonourableappellation.^" As we are unacquainted
^ The controversy with the Donatists has reflected some,
though perhaps a partial, light on the history of the African
church.
^ Eusebius de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13. He closes his narra-
tion by assuring us thai these were the martyrdoms inflicted in
168 THE DECLINE AND FALL
with the degree of episcopal zeal and courage which
prevailed at that time, it is not in our power to draw
any useful inferences from the former of these facts ;
but the latter may serve to justify a very important
and probable conclusion. According to the distribution
of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as
the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire ; ^^ and since
there were some governors who, from a real or affected
clemency, had preserved their hands unstained with
the blood of the faithful, it is reasonable to believe that
the country which had given birth to Christianity pro-
duced at least the sixteenth part of the martyrs who
suffered death within the dominions of Galerius and
Maximin ; the whole might consequently amount to
about fifteen hundred ; a number which, if it is equally
divided between the ten years of the persecution, will
allow an annual consumption of one hundred and fifty
Palestine during the whole course of the persecution. The fifth
chapter of his eighth book, which relates to the province of
Thebais in Egypt, may seem to contradict our moderate compu-
tation ; but it will only lead us to admire the artful management
of the historian. Choosing for the scene of the most exquisite
cruelty the most remote and sequestered country of the Roman
empire, he relates that in Thebais from ten to one hundred
persons had frequently suffered martyrdom in the same day.
But when he proceeds to mention his own journey into Egypt,
his language insensibly becomes more cautious and moderate.
Instead of a large, but definite number, he speaks of many
Christians (TrXf^oys), and most artfully selects two ambiguous
words {i<TToprj<TaiJ.€v , and virofxeivavTas), which may signify
either what he had seen or what he had heard ; either the
expectation or the execution of the punishment. Having thus
provided a secure evasion, he commits the equivocal passage
to his readers and translators ; justly conceiving that their piety
would induce them to prefer the most favourable sense. There
was perhaps some malice in the remark of Theodorus Meto-
chita, that all who, like Eusebius, had been conversant with the
Egyptians delighted in an obscure and intricate style.
98 When Palestine was divided into three, the praefecture of
the East contained forty-eight provinces. As the ancient dis-
tinctions of nations were long since abolished, the Romans dis-
tributed the provinces according to a general proportion of their
extent and opulence.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 159
martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to the pro-
vinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain, where, at
the end of two or three years, the rigour of the'penal
laws was either suspended or abolished, the multitude
of Christians in the Roman empire on whom a capital
punishment was inflicted by a judicial sentence will be
reduced to somewhat less than two thousand persons.
Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians were
more numerous, and their enemies more exasperated,
in the time of Diocletian, than they had ever been in
any former persecution, this probable and moderate
computation may teach us to estimate the number of
primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificed their lives
for the important purpose of introducing Christianity
into the world.
We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy
truth which obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind ;
that even admitting, without hesitation or inquiry, all
that history has recorded, or devotion has feigned, on
the subject of martyrdoms, it must still be acknow-
ledged that the Christians, in the course of their
intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities
on each other than they had experienced from the zeal
of infidels. During the ages of ignorance which followed
the subversion of the Roman empire in the West, the
bishops of the Imperial city extended their dominion
over the laity as well as clergy of the Latin church.
The fabric of superstition which they had erected, and
which might long have defied the feeble efi'orts of
reason, was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring
fanatics, who, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century,
assumed the popular character of reformers. The
church of Rome defended by violence the empire which
she had acquired by fraud ; a system of peace and
benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, wars,
massacres, and the institution of the holy office. And,
as the reformers were animated by the love of civil, as
well as of religious, freedom, the Catholic princes
connected their own interest with that of the clergy,
and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of
160 THE DECLINE AND FALL
spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, more
than one hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles
the Fifth are said to have suffered by the hand of the
executioner ; and this extraordinary numb6r is attested
by GrotiuSj a man of genius and learning, who pre-
served his moderation amidst the fury of contending
sects, and who composed the annals of his own age
and country, at a time when the invention of printing
had facilitated the means of intelligence and increased
the danger of detection. If we are obliged to submit
our belief to the authority of Grotius, it must be
allowed that the number of Protestants who were
executed in a single province and a single reign far
exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of
three centuries and of the Roman empire. But, if
the improbability of the fact itself should prevail over
the weight of evidence ; if Grotius should be convicted
of exaggerating the merit and sufferings of the Re-
formers ;^ we shall be naturally led to inquire what
confidence can be placed in the doubtful and imperfect
monuments of ancient credulity ; what degree of credit
can be assigned to a courtly bishop, and a passionate
declaimer, who, under the protection of Constantine,
enjoyed the exclusive privilege of recording the perse-
cutions inflicted on the Christians by the vanquished
rivals, or disregarded predecessors of their gracious
sovereign.
99 Fra Paolo (Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, 1. iii. ) reduces
the number of Belgic martyrs to 50,000. In learning and
moderation, Fra Paolo was not inferior to Grotius. The priority
of time gives some advantage to the evidence of the former,
which he loses on the other hand by the distance of Venice
from the Netherlands.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 161
CHAPTER XVII
FOUNDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE — POLITICAL SYSTEM OF
CONSTANTINE, AND HIS SUCCESSORS MILITARY DIS-
CIPLINE THE PALACE THE FINANCES
The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who op-
posed the greatness^, and the last captive who adorned
the triumph^ of Constantine. After a tranquil and
prosperous reign, the conqueror bequeathed to his
family the inheritance of the Roman empire : a new
capital, a new policy, and a new religion ; and the
innovations which he established have been embraced
and consecrated by succeeding generations. The age
of the great Constantine and his sons is filled with
important events ; but the historian must be oppressed
by their number and variety, unless he diligently
separates from each other the scenes which are con-
nected only by the order of time. He will describe
the political institutions that gave strength and sta-
bility to the empire, before he proceeds to relate
the wars and revolutions which hastened its decline.
He will adopt the division, unknown to the ancients,
of civil and ecclasiastical affairs : the victory of the
Christians and their intestine discord will supply
copious and distinct materials both for edification and
for scandal.
After the defeat and abdication of Licinius, his vic-
torious rival proceeded to lay the foundations of a city
destined to reign in future times the mistress of the
East, and to survive the empire and religion of Con-
stantine. The motives, whether of pride or of policy,
which first induced Diocletian to withdraw himself
from the ancient seat of government, had acquired
VOL. IL Y
162 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
additional weight by the example of his successors and
the habits of forty years. Rome was insensibly con-
founded with the dependent kingdoms which had once
acknowledged her supremacy ; and the country of tlie
Caesars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial
prince, born in the neighbourhood of the Danube,
educated in the courts and armies of Asia, and invested
with the purple by the legions of Britain. The Italians,
who had received Constantine as their deliverer, sub-
missively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes con-
descended to address to the senate and people of Rome ;
but they were seldom honoured with the presence of
their new sovereign. During the vigour of his age,
Constantine, according to the various exigencies of
peace and war, moved with slow dignity, or with active
diligence, along the frontiers of his extensive domin-
ions ; and was always prepared to take the tield either
against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But, as he
gradually reached the summit of prosperity and the
decline of life, he began to meditate the design of fixing
in a more permanent station the strength as well as
majesty of the throne. In the choice of an advanta-
geous situation, he preferred the confines of Europe
and Asia ; to curb, with a powerful arm, the barbarians
who dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais ; to
watch with an eye of jealousy the conduct of the Persian
monarch, who indignantly supported the yoke of an
ignominious treaty. With these views Diocletian had
selected and embellished the residence of Nicomedia :
but the memory of Diocletian was justly abhorred by
the protector of the church ; and Constantine was not
insensible to the ambition of founding a city which
might perpetuate the glory of his own name. During
the late operations of the war against Licinius, he had
sufficient opportunity to contemplate, both as a soldier
and as a statesman, the incomparable position of By-
zantium ; and to observe how strongly it was guarded
by nature against an hostile attack, whilst it was ac-
cessible on every side to the benefits of commercial
intercourse. Many ages before Constantine, one of
824 OF THE ROiMAN EMPIRE 163
the most judicious historians of antiquity ^ had described
the advantages of a situation^ from whence a feeble
colony of Greeks derived the command of the sea and
the honours of a flourishing and independent republic.^
If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it ac-
quired with the august name of Constantinople,, the
figure of the Imperial city may be represented under
that of an unequal triangle. The obtuse point, which
advances towards the east and the shores of Asia,
meets and repels the waves of the Thracian Bosphorus.
The northern side of the city is bounded by the
harbour ; and the southern is washed by the Propontis,
or sea of Marmara, Tlie basis of the triangle is op-
posed to the west, and terminates the continent of
Europe. But the admirable form and division of the
circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more
ample explanation, be clearly or sufficiently under-
stood.
The winding channel through which the waters of
the Euxine flow with a rapid and incessant course
towards the Mediterranean received the appellation of
Bosphorus, a name not less celebrated in the history
than in the fables of antiquity. A crowd of temples
and of votive altars, profusely scattered along its steep
and woody banks, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors,
and the devotion of the Grecian navigators, who, after
the example of the Argonauts, explored the dangers of
the inhospitable Euxine. On these banks tradition
long preserved the memory of the palace of Phineus,
1 Polybius, 1. iv. p. 423, edit. Casaubon. He observes that
the peace of the Byzantines was frequently disturbed, and the
extent of their territory contracted, by the' inroads of the wild
Thracians.
2 The navigator Byzas, who was styled the son of Neptune,
founded the city 656 years befcu-e the Christian sera. His
followers were drawn from Argos and Megara. Byzantium
was afterwards rebuilt and fortified by the Spartan general
Pausanias. With regard to the wars of the Byzantines against
Phihp, the Gauls, and the kings of Bithynia,' we should trust
none but the ancient writers who lived before the greatness of
the Imperial city had excited a spirit of flatten.' and fiction.
164 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
infested by the obscene harpies ; ^ and of the sylvan
reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the
combat of the Cestus.* The straits of the Bosphorus
are terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which, according
to the description of the poets, had once floated on the
face of the water?, and were destined by the gods to
protect the entrance of the Euxine against the eye of
profane curiosity.^ From the Cyanean rocks to the
point and harbour of Byzantium, the winding length
of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen miles,^ and its
most ordinary breadth may be computed at about one
mile and a half. The new castles of Europe and Asia
are constructed, on either continent, upon the founda-
tions of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and of
Jupiter Urius. The old castles, a work of the Greek
emperors, command the narrowest part of the channel,
in a place where the opposite banks advance within
five hundred paces of each other. These fortresses
were restored and strengthened by Mahomet the Second,
when he meditated the siege of Constantinople : ^ but
the Turkish conqueror was most probably ignorant
3 There are very few conjectures so happy as that of Le Clerc
(BibHotheque Universelle, torn. i. p. 148), who supposes that the
harpies were only locusts. The Syriac or Phoenician name of
those insects, their noisy flight, the stench and devastation
which they occasion, and the north wind which drives them
into the sea, all contribute to form this striking resemblance.
4 The residence of Amycus was in Asia, between the old and
the new castles, at a place called Laurus Insana. That of
Phineus was in Europe, near.' the village of Mauromole and the
Black Sea.
5 The deception was occasioned by several pointed rocks,
alternately covered and abandoned by the waves. At present
there are two small islands, one towards either shore: that of
Europe is distinguished by the column of Pompey.
6 The ancients computed one hundred and twenty stadia, or
fifteen Roman miles. They measured only from the new
castles, but they carried the straits as far as the town of
Chalcedon.
" Under the Greek empire these castles were used as state
prisons, under the tremendous name of Lethe, or towers of
oblivion.
824 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 165
that, near two thousand years before his reign, Darius
had chosen the same situation to connect the two con-
tinents by a bridge of boats. ^ At a small distance
from the old castles we discover the little town of
Chrysopolis, or Scutari, which may almost be considered
as the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. The Bos-
phorus, as it begins to open into the Propontis, passes
between Byzantium and Chalcedon. The latter of
those cities was built by the Greeks, a few years before
the former ; and the blindness of its founders, who
overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite
coast, has been stigmatised by a proverbial expression
of contempt.
The harbour of Constantinople, which may be con-
sidered as an arm of the Bosphorus, obtained, in a very
remote period, the denomination of the Golden Horn.
The curve which it describes might be compared to the
horn of a stag, or, as it should seem, with more
propriety, to that of an ox.^ The epithet of golden
was expressive of the riches which every wind wafted
from the most distant countries into the secure and
capacious port of Constantinople. The river Lycus,
formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into
the harbour a perpetual supply of fresh water, which
serves to cleanse the bottom and to invite the periodical
shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that convenient
recess. As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt in
those seas, the constant depth of the harbour allows
goods to be landed on the quays without the assistance
of boats ; and it has been observed that in many places
the largest vessels may rest their prows against the
houses, while their sterns are floating in the water.
From the mouth of the Lycus to that of the harbour
8 Darius engraved in Greek and Assyrian letters on two
marble columns the names of his subject nations, and the
amazing numbers of his land and sea forces. The Byzantines
afterwards transported these columns into the city, and used
them for the altars of their tutelar deities.
^ Most of the antlers are now broke off; or, to speak less
figuratively, most of the recesses of the harbour are filled up.
166 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.i>.
this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven miles in
length. The entrance is about five hundred yards
broad, and a strong chain could be occasionally drawn
across it, to sfuard the port and city from the attack of
an hostile navy.i^
Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the
shores of Europe and Asia receding on either side
inclose the sea of Marmara, which was known to the
ancients by the denomination of Propontis. The navi-
gation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance
of the Hellespont is about one hundred and twenty
miles. Those who steer their westward course through
the middle of the Propontis may at once descry the
high lands of Thrace and Bithynia, and never lose
siglit of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered
with eternal snows. They leave on the left a deep
gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the
imperial residence of Diocletian ; and they pass the
small islands of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they
cast anchor at Gallipoli ; where the sea, which separates
Asia from Europe, is again contracted into a narrow
channel.
The geographers who, with the most skilful accuracy,
have surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont,
assign about sixty miles for the winding course, and
about three miles for the ordinary breadth of those
celebrated straits. ^^ But the narrowest part of the
channel is found to the northward of the old Turkish
castles between the cities of Sestus and Abydus. It
was here that the adventurous Leander braved the
passage of the flood for the possession of his mistress.
It was here likewise, in a place where the distance
between the opposite banks cannot exceed five hundred
10 The chain was drawn from the Acropolis near the modern
Kiosk to the tower of Galata, and was supported at convenient
distances by large wooden piles.
^1 The stadia employed by Herodotus in the description of
the Euxine, the Bosphorus, &c. (1. iv, c. 85), must undoubtedly
be all of the same species ; but it seems impossible to reconcile
them either with truth or with each other.
324 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 167
paces, that ! Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of
boats^ for the purpose of transporting into Europe an
hundred and seventy myriads of barbarians. ^^ A sea
contracted within such narrow limits may seem but ill
to deserve the singular epithet of broad, which Homer,
as well as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on the
Hellespont. But our ideas of greatness are of a
relative nature : the traveller, and especially the poet,
who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursued the
windings of the stream, and contemplated the rural
scenery, which appeared on every side to terminate
the prospect, insensibly lost the remembrance of the
sea ; and his fancy painted those celebrated straits with
all the attributes of a mighty river flowing with a swift
current, in the midst of a woody and inland country,
and at length, through a wide mouth, discharging
itself into the ^gean or Archipelago. Ancient Troy,^^
seated on an eminence at the foot of Mont Ida, over-
looked the mouth of the Hellespont, which scarcely
received an accession of waters from the tribute of
those immortal rivulets Simois and Scamander. The
Grecian camp had stretched twelve miles along the
shore from the Sigaean to the Rhoetean promontory ;
and the flanks of the army were guarded by the bravest
chiefs who fought under the banners of Agamemnon.
The first of those promontories was occupied by Achilles
with his invincible Myrmidons, and the dauntless Ajax
pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had fallen
a sacrifice to his disappointed pride and to the ingrati-
tude of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on the
ground where he had defended the navy against the
12 See the seventh book of Herodotus, who has erected an
elegant trophy to his own fatne and to that of his country. The
review appears to have been made with tolerable accuracy ; but
the vanity, first of the Persians and afterwards of the Greeks,
was interested to magnify the armament and the victory. I
should much doubt whether the invaders have ever outnumbered
the jnen of any country which they attacked.
13 Demetrius of Scepsis wrote sixty books on thirty lines of
Homer's Catalogue. The XHIth Book of Strabo is sufficient
for our curiosity.
168 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
rage of Jove and of Hector ; and the citizens of the
rising town of Rhoeteum celebrated his memory with
divine honours.^* Before Constantine gave a just
preference to the situation of Byzantium, he had con-
ceived the design of erecting the seat of empire on this
celebrated spot, from whence the Romans derived their
fabulous origin. The extensive plain which lies below
ancient Troy, towards the Rhcetean promontory and
the tomb of Ajax, was first chosen for his new capital ;
and, though the undertaking was soon relinquished,
the stately remains of unfinished walls and towers
attracted the notice of all who sailed through the straits
of the Hellespont.
We are at present qualified to view the advantageous
position of Constantinople ; which appears to have been
formed by Nature for the centre and capital of a great
monarchy. Situated in the forty-first degree of lati-
tude, the imperial city commanded, from her seven
hills, the opposite shores of Europe and Asia ; the
climate was healthy and temperate, the soil fertile,
the harbour secure and capacious ; and the approach
on the side of the continent was of small extent and
easy defence. The Bosphorus and Hellespont may be
considered as the two gates of Constantinople ; and
the prince who possessed those important passages
could always shut them against a naval enemy and
open them to the fleets of commerce. The preserva-
tion of the eastern provinces may, in some degree, be
ascribed to the policy of Constantine, as the barbarians of
the Euxine, who in the preceding age had poured their
armaments into the heart of the Mediterranean, soon
desisted from the exercise of piracy, and despaired of
forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates
of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, the capi-
tal still enjoyed, within their spacious inclosure, every
production which could supply the wants, or gratify
I'l Strabo, 1. xiii. p. 595. The disposition of the ships
which were drawn upon dry land, and the posts of Ajax and
Achilles, are very clearly described by Homer.
324 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 1G9
the luxury, of its uumerous inhabitants. The sea-
coast of Thrace and Bitliynia, which laneruish under
the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibits a rich
prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful
harvests ; and the Propontis has ever been renowned
for an inexhaustible store of the most exquisite fish, that
are taken in their stated seasons without skill and
almost without labour.^^ But, when the passages of
the Straits were thrown open for trade, they alter-
nately admitted the natural and artiiicial riches of the
north and south, of the Euxine, and of the Mediter-
ranean. Whatever rude commodities were collected
in the forests of Germany and Scythia, as far as the
sources of the Tanais and the Borysthenes ; whatsoever
was manufactured by the skill of Europe or Asia ; the
corn of Egypt, and the gems and spices of the farthest
India, were brought by the varying winds into the port
of Constantinople, which, for many ages, attracted the
commerce of the ancient world.
The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth,
united in a single spot, was sufficient u> justify the
choice of Constantine. But, as some decent mixture
of prodigy and fable has, in every age, been supposed
to reflect a becoming majesty on the origin of great
cities, the emperor was desirous of ascribing his re-
solution, not so much to the uncertain counsels of
human policy, as to the infallible and eternal decrees
of divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been
careful to instruct posterity that, in obedience to the
commands of God, he laid the everlasting foundations
of Constantinople ; and, though he has not conde-
scended to relate in what manner the celestial inspira-
tion was communicated to his mind, the defect of
his modest silence has been liberally supplied by the
ingenuity of succeeding writers, who describe the
nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of Con-
is Among a variety of different species, the Pelamides, a sort
of Thunnies, were the most celebrated. We may learn from
Polybius, Strabo, and Tacitus that the profits of the fishery
constituted the principal revenue of Byzantium
VOL. n. F 2
170 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
stantiue, as he slept within the walls of Byzantium.
The tutelar genius of the city_, a venerable matron
sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, was
suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his
own hands adorned with all the symbols of imperial
greatness.^^ The monarch awoke, interpreted the
auspicious omen, and obeyed, without hesitation, the
will of heaven. The day which gave birth to a city
or colony was celebrated by the Romans with such
ceremonies as had been ordained by a generous super-
stition ; ^'' and, though Constantine might omit some
rites which savoured too strongly of their Pagan origin,
yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of hope
and respect on tlie minds of the spectators. On foot,
with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the
solemn procession ; and directed the line which was
traced as the boundary of the destined capital ; till the
growing circumference was observed with astonishment
by the assistants, who, at length, ventured to observe
that he had already exceeded the most ample measure
of a great city. " 1 shall still advance," replied Con-
stantine, " till HE, the invisible guide who marches
before me, thinks proper to stop." Without presuming
to investigate the nature or motives of this extraordi-
nary conductor, we shall content ourselves with the
more humble task of describing the extent and limits
of Constantinople.
In the actual state of the city, the palace and
gardens of the Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory,
the first of the seven hills, and cover about one
hundred and fifty acres of our own measure. The
seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism is erected on
18 The Greeks, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and the author of the
Alexandrian Chronicle, confine themselves to vague and general
expressions. For a more particular account of the vision, we
are obliged to have recourse to such Latin writers as William
of Malmesbury.
" Among other ceremonies, a large hole, which had been
dug for that purpose, was filled up with handfuls of earth,
which each of the settlers brought from the place of his birth,
and thus adopted his new country.
324: OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 171
the foundations of a Grecian republic ; but it may be
supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the
conveniency of tlie harbour to extend their habitations
on that side beyond the modern limits of the Seraglio.
The new walls of Constantine stretched from the port
to the Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the
triangle, at the distance of fifteen stadia from the
ancient fortification ; and with the city of Byzantium
they inclosed five of the seven hills, which, to the eyes
of those who approach Constantinople, appear to rise
above each other in beautiful order. About a century
after the death of the founder, the new building, ex-
tending on one side up the harbour, and on the other
along the Propontis, already covered the narrow ridge
of the sixth, and ithe broad summit of the seventh,
hill. The necessity of protecting those suburbs from
the incessant inroads of the barbarians engaged the
younger Theodosius to surround his capital with an
adequate and permanent enclosure of walls.^® From
the eastern promontory to the golden gate, the extreme
length of Constantinople was about three Roman
miles ; ^^ the circumference measured between ten and
eleven ; and the surface might be computed as equal
to about two thousand English acres. It is impossible
to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of
modern travellers, who have sometimes stretched the
limits of Constantinople over the adjacent villages of
the European, and even of the Asiatic coast.^ But
18 The new wall of Theodosius was constructed in the year
413. In 447 it was thrown down by an earthquake, and re-
built in three months by the diligence of the praefect Cyrus.
The suburb of the Blachernse was first taken into the city in
the reign of Heraclius. Ducange Const. 1. i. c. 10, 11.
19 The measurement is expressed in the Notitia by 14,075
feet. It is reasonable to suppose that these were Greek feet ;
the proportion of which has been ingeniously determined by
M. d'Anville. He compares the 180 feet with the 78 Hashemite
cubits which in different writers are assigned for the height of St,
Sophia. Each of these cubits was equal to 27 French inches.
20 The accuiate Th^venot (1. i. c. 15) walked in one hour and
three quarters round two of the sides of the triangle, from the
172 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the suburbs of Pera and Galata, though situate beyond
the harbour, may deserve to be considered as a part of
the city ; ^i and this addition may perhaps authorise
the measure of a Byzantine historian, who assigns
sixteen Greek (about fourteen Roman) miles for the
circumference of his native city.22 Such an extent
may seem not unworthy of an imperial residence.
Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and
Thebes,-^ to ancient Rome, to London, and even to
Paris.2^
The master of the Roman world, who aspired to
erect an eternal monument of the glories of his reign,
could employ in the prosecution of that great work
the wealth, the labour, and all that yet remained of
the genius, of obedient millions. Some estimate may
be formed of the expense bestowed with imperial liber-
ality on the foundation of Constantinople, by the allow-
ance of about two millions fivehundred thousand pounds
for the construction of the walls, the porticoes, and the
aqueducts. ^^ The forests that overehadowed the shores
Kiosk of the Seraglio to the seven towers. D'Anville examines
with care, and receives with confidence, this decisive testimony,
which gives a circumference of ten or twelve miles. The ex-
travagant computation of Tournefort (Lettre XI.) of thirty-four
or thirty miles, without including Scutari, is a strange departure
from his usual character.
21 The sycse, or fig-trees, formed the thirteenth region, and
were very much embellished by Justinian. It has since borne
the names of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the former
is obvious ; that of the latter is unknown.
22 One hundred and eleven stadia, which may be translated
into modern Greek miles each of seven stadia, or 660 sometimes
only 600, French toises.
23 W^hen the ancient texts which describe the size of Babylon
and Thebes are settled, the exaggerations reduced, and the
measures ascertained, we find that those famous cities filled the
great but not incredible circumference of about twenty-five or
thirty miles.
2-* If we divide Constantinople and Paris into equal squares
of 50 French toises, the former contains 850, and the latter 1160
of those divisions.
25 Six hundred centenaries, or sixty thousand pounds weight
of gold. This sum is taken from Codinus Antiquit. Const.
324 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 173
of the Euxine, and the celebrated quarries of white
marble in the little island of Proconnesus, supplied an
inexhaustible stock of materials, ready to be conveyed,
by the convenience of a short water-carriage, to the
harbour of Byzantium. A multitude of labourers and
artificers urged the conclusion of the work with incef;-
sant toil : but the impatience of Constantine soon dis-
covered that, in the decline of the arts, the skill as
well as numbers of his architects bore a very unequal
proportion to the greatness of his designs. The magi-
strates of the most distant provinces were therefore
directed to institute schools, to appoint professors, and
bv the hopes of rewards and privileges, to engage in
the study and practice of architecture a sufficient
number of ingenious youths, who had received a liberal
education.-^ The buildings of the new city were exe-
cuted by such artificers as the reign of Constantine
could afford ; but they were decorated by the hands of
the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and
Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and
Lysippus surpassed indeed the power of a Roman
emperor ; but the immortal productions which they
had bequeathed to posterity were exposed without
defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his
commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled
of their most valuable ornaments. The trophies of
memorable wars, the objects of religious veneration,
the most finished statues of the gods and heroes, of
the sages and poets, of ancient times, contributed to
the splendid triumph of Constantinople ; and gave
occasion to the remark of the historian Cedrenus,'''^
p. II ; but, unless that contemptible author had derived his
information from some purer sources, he would probably have
been unacquainted with so obsolete a mode of reckoning:.
2*5 This law is dated in the year 334, and was addressed to
the prasfect of Italy, whose jurisdiction extended over Africa.
The commentary of Godefroy on the whole title well deserves
to be consulted,
27 Hist. Compend. p. 369. He describes the statue, or rather
bust, of Homer with a degree of taste which plainly indicates
that Cedrenus copied the style of a more fortunate age.
174 THE DECLINE AND FALL
wlio observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing^
seemed wantins: except the souls of the illustrious men
whom those admirable monuments were intended to
represent. But it is not in the city of Constantino,
nor in the declinins: period of an empire when the
human mind was depressed by civil and religious
slavery, that we should seek for the souls of Homer
and of Demosthenes.
During- the siege of Byzantium, the conqueror had
pitched his tent on the commanding eminence of the
second hill. To perpetuate the memory of his success,
he chose the same advant:igeous position for the prin-
cipia Forum ; which appears to have been of a circular,
or rather illiptical form. The two opposite entrances
formed triumphal arches ; the porticoes, which inclosed
it on every side, were filled with statues ; and the
centre of the Forum was occupied by a lofty column,
of which a mutilated fragment is now degraded by the
appellation of the burnt pillar. This column was erected
on a pedestal of white marble twenty feet high ; and
was composed often pieces of porphyry, each of which
measured above ten feet in height and about thirty-
three in circumference. On the summit of the pillar,
above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground,
stood the colossal statue of Apollo. It was of bronze,
had been transported either from Athens or from a
town of Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of
Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day,
or, as it was afterwards interpreted, the emperor Con-
stantine himself, with a sceptre in his right hand, the
globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays
glittering on his head. The Circus, or Hippodrome,
was a stately building about four hundred paces in
length and one hundred in breadth. The space be-
tween the two metiE or goals was filled with statues and
obelisks ; and we may still remark a very singular
fragment of antiquity ; the bodies of three serpents,
twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple heads
had once supported the golden tripod which, after the
defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 175
Delphi by the victorious Greeks. ^^ The beauty of the
Hippodrome has been long- since defaced by the rude
hands of the Turkish conquerors ; but, under the
similar appellation of Atmeidan, it still serves as a place
of exercise for their horses. From the throne, whence
the emperor viewed the Circensian games, a winding-
staircase^^ descended to the palace; a magnificent
edifice, which scarcely yielded to the residence of
Rome itself, and which, together with the dependent
courts, gardens, and porticoes, covered a considerable
extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis
between the Hippodrome and the church of St. Sophia. ^"^
We might likewise celebrate the baths, which still
retained the name of Zeuxippus, after they had been
enriched, by the munificence of Constantine, with lofty
columns, various marbles, and above threescore statues
of bronze.^^ But we should deviate from the design
28 The guardians of the most holy relics would rejoice if they
were able to produce such a chain of evidence as may be alleged
on this occasion, i. The original consecration of the tripod and
pillar in the temple of Delphi may be proved from Herodotus
and Pausanias. 2. The Pagan Zosimus agrees with the three
ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius, Socrates, and Sozomen, that
the sacred ornaments of the temple of Delphi were removed to
Constantinople by the order of Constantine ; and among these
the serpentine pillar of the Hippodrome is particularly men-
tioned. 3. All the European travellers who have visited Con-
stantinople, from Buondelmonte to Pocock, describe it in the
same place, and almost in the same manner ; the differences
between them are occasioned only by the injuries which it has
sustained from the Turks. Mahomet the Second broke the
under-jaw of one of the serpents with a stroke of his battle-axe.
29 The Latin name Cochlea was adopted by the Greeks, and
very frequently occurs in the Byzantine history.
30 There are three topographical points which indicate the
situation of the palace, i. The staircase, which connected it
with the Plippodrome or Atmeidan. 2. A small artificial port
on the Propontis, from whence there was an easy ascent, by a
flight of marble steps, to the gardens of the palace. 3. The
Augusteum was a spacious court, one side of which was occu-
pied by the front of the palace, and another by the church of
St. Sophia.
31 Zeuxippus was an epithet of Jupiter, and the baths were a
part of old Byzantium. The difficulty of assigning their true
176 THE DECLINE AND FALL
of this history, if we attempted minutely to describe
the different buildings or quarters of the city. It may
be sufficient to observe that whatever could adorn the
dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefit
or pleasure of its numerous inhabitants, was contained
within the walls of Constantinople. A particular de-
scription, composed about a century after its foundation,
enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus,
two theatres, eight public, and one hundred and fifty-
three private, baths, fifty-two porticoes, five granaries,
eight aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious
halls for the meetings of the senate or courts of justice,
fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four thousand
three hundred and eighty-eight houses, which, for their
size or beauty, deserved to be distinguished from the
multitude of plebeian habitations.^
The populousness of his favoured city was the next
and most serious object of the attention of its founder.
In the dark ages which succeeded the translation of
the empire, the remote and the immediate consequences
of that memorable event were strangely confounded
by the vanity of the Greeks and the credulity of the
Latins. 33 It was asserted and believed that all the
situation has not been felt by Ducange. History seems to con-
nect them with St. Sophia and the palace ; but the original
plan, inserted in Banduri, places them on the other side of the
city, near the harbour.
32 See the Notitia. Rome only reckoned 1780 large houses,
domus ; but the word must have had a more dignified signi-
fication. No insulcB are mentioned at Constantinople. The
old capital consisted of 424 streets, the new of 322.
33 The modern Greeks have strangely disfigured the anti-
quities of Constantinople. We might excuse the errors of the
Turkish or Arabian writers ; but it is somewhat astonishing
that the Greeks, who had access to the authentic materials pre-
served in their own language, should prefer fiction to truth and
loose tradition to genuine history. In a single page of Codinus
we may detect twelve unpardonable mistakes : the reconcilia-
tion of Severus and Niger, the marriage of their son and
daughter, the siege of Byzantium by the Macedonians, the
invasion of the Gauls, which recalled Severus to Rome, the
sixty years which elapsed from his death to the foundation of
Constantinople, &c
OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE 177
noble families of Rome,, the senate, and the equestrian
order, with their innumerable attendants, had followed
their emperor to the banks of the Propontis ; that a
spurious race of stranig-ers and plebeians was left to
possess the solitude of the ancient capital ; and that
the lands of Italy, long since converted into gardens,
were at once deprived of cultivation and inhabitants.
In the course of this history, such exaggerations will
be reduced to their just value : yet, since the growth
of Constantinople cannot be ascribed to the general
increase of mankind and of industry, it must be
admitted that this artificial colony was raised at the
expense of the ancient cities of the empire. Many
opulent senators of Rome, and of the Eastern provinces,
were probably invited by Constantine to adopt for
their country the fortunate spot which he had chosen
for his own residence. The invitations of a master are
scarcely to be distinguished from commands ; and the
liberality of the emperor obtained a ready and cheerful
obedience. He bestowed on his favourites the palaces
which he had built in the several quarters of the city,
assigned them lands and pensions for the support of
their dignity, ^^ and alienated the demesnes of Pontus
and Asia, to grant hereditary estates by the easy
tenure of maintaining a house in the capital. But
these encouragements and obligations soon became
superfluous, and were gradually abolished. A^Tierever
the seat of government is fixed, a considerable part of
the public revenue will be expended by the prince
himself, by his ministers, by the officers of justice,
and by the domestics of the palace. The most wealthy
of the provincials will be attracted by the powerful
motives of interest and duty, of amusement and
curiosity. A third and more numerous class of
inhabitants will insensibly be formed, of servants, of
** If we could credit Codinus (p. lo), Constantine built houses
for the senators on the exact model of their Roman palaces,
and gratified them, as well as himself, with the pleasure of an
agreeable surprise; but the whole story is full of fictions and
inconsistencies.
178 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
artificers, and of merchantSj who derive their sub-
sistence from their own labour and from the wants
or luxury of the superior ranks. In less than a
century, Constantinople disputed with Rome itself
the pre-eminence of riches and numbers. New piles
of buildings, crowded together with too little re-
gard to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the
intervals of narrow streets for the perpetual throng
of men, of horses, and of carriages. The allotted
space of ground was insufficient to contain the in-
creasing people ; and the additional foundations,
which, on either side, were advanced into the
sea, might alone have composed a very considerable
city.
The frequent and regular distributions of wine and
oil, of corn or bread, of money or provisions, had
almost exempted the poorer citizens of Rome from the
necessity of labour. The magnificence of the first
Ciesars was in some measure imitated by the founder
of Constantinople : ^ but his liberality, however it
might excite the applause of the people, has incurred
the censure of posterity. A nation of legislators and
conquerors might assert their claim to the harvests of
Africa, which had been purchased with their blood ;
and it was artfully contrived by Augustus that, in
the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the
memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constan-
tino could not be excused by any consideration either
of public or private interest ; and the annual tribute
of corn imposed upon Egypt for the benefit of his new
capital was applied to feed a lazy and indolent populace,
at the expense of the husbandmen of an industrious
province. Some other regulations of this emperor are
less liable to blame, but they are less deserving of
notice. He divided Constantinople into fourteen
^ It appears by Socrates, 1. ii. c. 13, that the daily allow-
ances of the city consisted of eight myriads of airov, which
we may either translate with Valesius by the words modii
of corn or consider as expressive of the number of loaves of
bread.
S30-834 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 179
regions or quarters/^ dignified the public council with
the appellation of Senate^'*'^ communicated to the
citizens the privileires of Italy, and bestowed on the
rising city the title of Colony, the first and most
favoured daughter of ancient Rome.- The venerable
parent still maintained the legal and acknowledged
supremacy which was due to her age, to her dignity,
and to the remembrance of her former greatness.^
As Constantine urged the progress of the work with
the impatience of a lover, the walls, the porticoes, and
the principal edifices, were completed in a few years,
or, according to another account, in a few months ;
but this extraordinary diligence should excite the less
admiration, since many of the buildings were finished
in so hasty and imperfect a manner that, under the
succeeding reign, they were preserved with diflSculty
from impending ruin. But, while they displayed the
vigour and freshness of youth, the founder prepared
to celebrate the dedication of his city.^^ The games
^ The regions of Constantinople are mentioned in the code
of Justinian, and particularly described in the Notitia of the
younger Theodosius ; but, as the four last of them are not in-
cluded within the wall of Constantine, it may be doubted whether
this division of the city should be referred to the founder.
37 The senators of old Rome were styled Clarissimi. From
the nth epistle of Julian, it should seem that the place of senator
was considered as a burthen rather than as an honour ; but the
Abb^ de la Bl^terie (Vie de Jovien, t. ii. p. 371) has shown that
this epistle could not relate to Constantinople. Might we not
read, instead of the celebrated name of Bu^ai'rioij, the obscure
but more probable word BLaavdrjvoLs ? Bisanthe or Rhoedestus,
now Rhodosto, was a small maritime city of Thrace.
^ Julian (Orat. i. p. 8) celebrates Constantinople as not less
superior to all other cities than she was inferior to Rome itself.
His learned commentator (Spanheim, pp. 75, 76) justifies this
language by several parallel and contemporary instances.
Zosimus, as well as Socrates and Sozomen, flourished after the
division of the empire between the two sons of Theodosius,
which established a perfect equality between the old and the
new capital.
39 Cedrenus and Zonaras, faithful to the mode of superstition
which prevailed in their own times, assure us that Constanti-
nople was consecrated to the Virgin Mother of God.
180 THE DECLINE AND FALL
and largesses which crowned the pomp of this memor-
able festival may easily be supposed ; but there is one
circumstance of a more sing-ular and permanent nature,
which ou^ht not entirely to be overlooked. As often
as the birthday -of the city returned, the statue of
Constantine, framed, by his order, of gilt wood, and
bearing in its right hand a small image of the genius
of the place, was erected on a triumphal car. The
guards, carrying white tapers, and clothed in their
richest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession
as it moved through the Hippodrome. A\^hen it was
opposite to the throne of the reigning emperor, he
rose from his seat, and with grateful reverence adored
the memory of his predecessor.'*^ At the festival of
the dedication, an edict, engraved on a column of
marble, bestowed the title of Second or New Rome on
the city of Constantine. But the name of Constanti-
nople*'^ has prevailed over that honourable epithet;
and, after the revolution of fourteen centuries, still
perpetuates the fame of its author.'*-
• The foundation of a new capital is naturally con-
nected with the establishment of a new form of civil
and military administration. The distinct view of the
complicated system of policy, introduced by Diocletian,
40 The earliest and most complete account of this extraordinary
ceremony may be found in the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 285.
Tillemont, and the other friends of Constantine, who are
offended with the air of Paganism which seems unworthy of a
Christian Prince, had a right to consider it as doubtful, but
they were not authorised to omit the mention of it.
41 The name of Constantinople is extant on the medals of
Constantine.
42 The lively Fontenelle (Dialogues des Morts, xii.) affects to
deride the vanity of human ambition, and seems to triumph in
the disappointment of Constantine, whose immortal name is
now lost in the vulgar appellation of Istambol, a Turkish cor-
ruption of els TT]v irbXiv. Yet the original name is still pre-
served, I. By the nations of Europe. 2. By the modern Greeks.
3. By the Arabs, whose writings are diffused over the wide
extent of their conquests in Asia and Africa. See d'Herbelot
Biblioth^que Orientale, p. 275. 4, By the more learned Turks,
and by the emperor himself in his public mandates.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 181
improved by Constantine, and completed by his im-
mediate successors, may not only amuse the fancy
by the singular picture of a grreat empire, but will
tend to illustrate the secret and internal causes of its
rapid decay. In the pursuit of any remarkable insti-
tution, we may be frequently led into the more early
or the more recent times of the Roman history ; but
the proper limits of this inquiry will be included
within a period of about one hundred and thirty years,
from the accession of Constantine to the publication of
the Theodosian code ; '^^ from which, as well as from
the Notitia of the east and west,^^ we derive the most
copious and authentic information of the state of the
empire. This variety of objects will suspend, for some
time, the course of the narrative ; but the interruption
will be censured only by those readers who are in-
sensible to the importance of laws and manners, while
they peruse, withfeager curiosity, the transient intrigues
of a court, or the accidental event of a battle.
The manly pride of the Romans, content with sub-
stantial power, had left to the vanity of the east the
forms and ceremonies of ostentatious greatness. But
when they lost even the semblance of those virtues
which were derived from their ancient freedom, the
simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted
by the stately affectation of the courts of Asia. The
distinctions of personal merit and influence, so con-
spicuous in a republic, so feeble and obscure under a
monarchy, were abolished by the despotism of the
emperors ; who substituted in their room a severe
subordination of rank and oflfice, from the titled slaves^
who were seated on the steps of the throne, to the
meanest instruments of arbitrary power. This multi-
43 The Theodosian code was promulgated A.D. 438,
44 Pancirolus, in his elaborate Commentary, assigns to the
Notitia a date almost similar to that of the Theodosian code :
but his proofs, or rather conjectures, are extremely feeble. I
should be rather inclined to place this useful work between the
final division of the empire (a.d. 395), and the successful inva-
sion of Gaul by the Barbarians (a.d. 407),
182 THE DECLINE AND FALL
tude of abject dependants was interested in the support
of the actual government, from the dread of a revolu-
tion, which might at once confound their hopes and
intercept the reward of their services. In this divine
hierarchy (for such it is frequently styled) every rank
was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and
its dignity was displayed in a variety of trifling and
solemn ceremonies, which it was a study to learn
and a sacrilege to neglect. '^^ The purity of the Latin
language was debased by adopting, in the intercourse
of pride and flattery, a profusion of epithets, which
TuUy would scarcely have understood, and which
Augustus would have rejected with indignation. The
principal oflScers of the empire were saluted, even
by the sovereign himself, with the deceitful titles of
your Sincerity, your Gravity, your Excellency, your
Eminence, your sublime and wonderful Magnitude, your
illustrious and magnificent Highness. The codicils or
patents of their office were curiously emblazoned with
such emblems as were best adapted to explain its nature
and high dignity ; the image or portrait of the reigning
emperors ; a triumphal car ; the book of mandates
placed on a table, covered with a rich carpet, and
illuminated by four tapers ; the allegorical figures of
the provinces which they governed ; or the appellations
and standards of the troops whom they commanded.
Some of these official ensigns were really exhibited in
their hall of audience ; others preceded their pompous
march whenever they appeared in public ; and every
circumstance of their demeanour, their dress, their
ornaments, and their train, was calculated to inspire
a deep reverence for the representatives of supreme
majesty. By a philosophic observer, the system of
the Roman government might have been mistaken for
a splendid theatre, filled with players of every char-
^ The emperor Gratian, after confirming a law of precedency
published by Valentinian, the father of his Divinity, thus con-
tinues : Siquis igitur indebitum sibi locum usurpaverit, nulla se
ignoratione defendat ; sitque plane sacrilegii reus, qui divina
praecepta neglexerit.
OF, THE ROMAN EMPIRE 183
acter and degree, who repeated the language, and
imitated the passions, of their original model.
All the magistrates of sufficient impoi-tance to find
a place in the general state of the empire were accurately
divided into three classes. 1. The Illustrious. 2. The
Spectabiles, or Respectable: And, 3. The Clarissimi ;
whom we may translate by the word Honourable. In
the times of Roman simplicity, the last-mentioned
epithet was used only as a vague expression of defer-
ence, till it became at length the peculiar and appro-
priated title of all who were members of the senate,**^
and consequently of all who, from that venerable body,
were selected to govern the provinces. The vanity of
those who, from their rank and office, might claim a
superior distinction above the rest of the senatorial
order was long afterwards indulged with the new
appellation of Respectable ; but the title of Illustrious
was always reserved to some eminent personages who
were obeyed or " reverenced by the two subordinate
classes. It was communicated only, I. To the consuls
and patricians ; II. To the Praetorian praefects, with the
praefects of Rome and Constantinople ; III. To the
masters general of the cavalry and the infantry ; and,
IV. To the seven ministers of the palace, who exercised
their sacred functions about the person of the emperor.*^
Among those illustrious magistrates who were esteemed
co-ordinate with each other, the seniority of appoint-
ment gave place to the union of dignities.^ By the
expedient of honorary codicils, the emperors, who
were fond of multiplying their favours, might some-
^ In the Pandects, which may be referred to the reigns of
the Antonines, Clarissimus is the ordinary and legal title of a
senator.
^7 Pancirol. pp. 12-17. ^ have not taken any notice of the
two inferior ranks, Perfectissimus and Egregius, which were
given to many persons who were not raised to the senatorial
dignity.
^ Cod. Theodos. 1. vi. tit, vi. The rules of precedency are
ascertained with the most minute accuracy by the emperors
and illustrated with equal prolixity by their learned inter-
preter.
184 THE DECLINE AND FALL
times gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of
impatient courtiers.
I, As long as the Roman consuls were the first
magistrates of a free state, they derived their right to
power from the choice of the people. As long as the
emperors condescended to disguise the servitude which
they imposed, the consuls were still elected by the real
or apparent suifi-age of the senate. From the reign of
Diocletian, eveij these vestiges of liberty were abolished,
and the successful candidates who were invested with
the annual honours of the consulship affected to deplore
the humiliating condition of their predecessors. The
Scipios and the Catos had been reduced to solicit the
votes of plebeians, to pass through the tedious and ex-
pensive forms of a popular election, and to expose their
dignity to the sbame of a public refusal ; while their
own happier fate bad reserved them for an age and
government in which the rewards of virtue were assigned
by the unerring wisdom of a graciouS sovereign.^^ In
the epistles which the emperor addressed to the two
consuls elect, it was declared that they were created
by his sole authority. Their names and portraits, en-
graved on gilt tablets of ivory, were dispersed over the
empire as presents to the provinces, the cities, the
magistrates, the senate, and the people. Their solemn
inauguration was performed at the place of the Imperial
residence ; and, during a period of one hundred and
twenty years, Rome was constantly deprived of the
presence of her ancient magistrates.^ On the morning
of the first of January, the consuls assumed the ensigns
of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple,
embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimes ornamented
with costly gems. On this solemn occasion they were
*9 Auso^aius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates on this
unworthy topic, which is managed by Mamertinus (Panegyr.
Vet. xi. i6, 19) with somewhat more freedom and ingenuity.
50 From the reign of Carus to the sixth consulship of Honorius,
there was an interval of one hundred and twenty years, during
which the emperors were always absent from Rome on the first
day of January.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 186
attended by the most eminent officers of the state and
army, in the habit of senators ; and the useless fasces,
armed with the once formidable axes_, were borne
before them by the lictors. The procession moved
from the palace to the Forum, or principal square of
the city ; where the consuls ascended their tribunal,
and seated themselves in the curule chairs, which were
framed after the fashion of ancient times. They im-
mediately exercised an act of jurisdiction, by the
manumission of a slave, who was brought before them
for that purpose ; and the ceremony was intended to
represent the celebrated action of the elder Brutus,
the author of liberty and of the consulship, when he
admitted among his fellow-citizens the faithful Vindex,
who had revealed the conspiracy of the Tarquins. The
public festival was continued during several days in all
the principal cities ; in Rome, from custom ; in Con-
stantinople, from imitation ; in Carthage, Antioch, and
Alexandria, from the love of pleasure and the super-
fluity of wealth. In the two capitals of empire the
annual games of the theatre, the circus, and the amphi-
theatre,^^ cost four thousand pounds of gold, (about)
one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling : and
if so heavy an expense surpassed the faculties or the
inclination of the magistrates themselves, the sum was
supplied from the Imperial treasury. As soon as the
consuls had discharged these customary duties, they
were at liberty to retire into the shade of private life,
and to enjoy, during the remainder of the year, the
undisturbed contemplation of their own greatness.
They no longer presided in the national councils ;
they no longer executed the resolutions of peace or
war. Their abilities (unless they were employed in
more effective offices) were of little moment ; and their
names served only as the legal date of the year in
51 Claudian (in Cons. Mall. Theodori, 279-331) describes, in
a lively and fanciful manner, the various games of the circus,
the theatre, and the amphitheatre, exhibited by the new
consul. The sanguinary combats of gladiators had already
been prohibited.
186 THE DECLINE AND FALL
which they had filled the chair of Marius and of
Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged^ in the
last period of Roman servitude, that this empty name
might be compared, and even preferred, to the posses-
sion of substantial power. The title of consul was still
the most splendid object of ambition, the noblest
reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors them-
selves, who disdained the faint shadow of the republic,
were conscious that they acquired an additional
splendour and majesty as often as they assumed the
annual honours of the consular dignity. ^^
The proudest and most perfect separation which can
be found in any age or country between the nobles
and the people is perhaps that of the Patricians and
the Plebeians, as it was established in the first age
of the Roman republic. Wealth and honours, the
offices of the state, and the ceremonies of religion,
were almost exclusively possessed by the former ; who,
preserving the purity of their blood with the most
insulting jealousy,^^ held their clients in a condition
of specious vassalage. But these distinctions, so in-
compatible with the spirit of a free people, were re-
moved, after a long struggle, by the persevering efforts
of the Tribunes. The most active and successful of the
Plebeians accumulated wealth, aspired to honours, de-
served triumphs, contracted alliances, and, after some
generations, assumed the pride of ancient nobility."
■>' In Consulatu honos sine labore suscipitur (Mamertin. in
Panegyr. Vet. xi. 2). This exalted idea of the consulship is ;
borrowed from an Oration (iii. p. 107) pronounced by Julian in
the servile court of Constantius.
■^ Intermarriages between the Patricians and Plebeians were
prohibited by the laws of the XII. Tables ; and the uniform
operations of human nature may attest that the custom survived '
the law.
■^ See the animated pictures drawn by Sallust, in the Jugur-
thine war, of the pride of the nobles, and even of the virtuous
Metellus, who was unable to brook the idea that the honour
of the consulship should be bestowed on the obscure merit of
his lieutenant Marius (c. 64). Two hundred years before, the
race of the Metelli themselves were confounded among the
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 187
The Patrician families, on the other hand, whose
oriaiual number was never recruited till the end of the
commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of
nature, or were extinguished in so many foreign and
domestic wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune,
insensibly mingled with the mass of the people.^
Very few remained who could derive their pure and
genuine origin from the infancy of the city, or even
from that of the republic, when Caesar and Augustus,
Claudius and Vespasian, created from the body of
the senate a competent number of new Patrician
families, in the hope of perpetuating an order which
was still considered as honourable and sacred.^ But
these artificial supplies (in which the reigning house
was always included) were rapidly swept away by the
rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change
of manners, and by the intermixture of nations."" Little
more was left when Constantine ascended the throne
than a vague and imperfect tradition that the Patricians
had once been the first of the Romans. To form a
Plebeians of Rome ; and from the etymology of their name of
CcBcilius, there is reason to believe that those haughty nobles
derived their origin from a sutler.
56 In the year of Rome 800, very few remained, not only of
the old Patrician families, but even of those which had been
created by Csesar and Augustus. The family of Scaurus (a
branch of the Patrician .^Emilii) was degraded so low that his
father, who exercised the trade of a charcoal merchant, left him
only ten slaves, and somewhat less than three hundred pounds
sterling. The family was saved from oblivion by the merit of
the son.
56 The virtues of Agricola, who was created a Patrician by
the emperor Vespasian, reflected honour on that ancient order ;
but his ancestors had not any claim beyond an equestrian
nobility.
67 This failure would have been almost impossible, if it
were true, as Casaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm
(ad. Sueton. in Caesar, c. 42. See Hist. August, p. 203, and
Casaubon, Comment, p. 220), that Vespasian created at once
a thousand Patrician families. But this extravagant number is
too much even for the whole senatorial order, unless we should
include all the Roman knights who were distinguished by the
permission of wearing the laticlave.
188 THE DECLINE AND FALL
body of nobles, whose influence may restrain., while it
secures, the authority of the monarch, would have
been very inconsistent with the character and policy
of Constantino ; but, had he seriously entertained such
a design, it might have exceeded the measure of his
power to ratify, by an arbitrary edict, an institution
which must expect the sanction of time and of opinion.
He revived, indeed, the title of Patricians, but he
revived it as a personal, not as an hereditary, distinction.
They yielded only to the transient superiority of the
annual consuls ; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence
over all the great officers of state, with the most familiar
access to the person of the prince. This honourable
rank was bestowed on them for life ; and, as they were
usually favourites and ministers who had grown old in
the Imperial court, the true etymology of the word
was perverted by ignorance and flattery ; and the
Patricians of Constantino were reverenced as the
adopted Fathers of the emperor and the republic.
II. The fortunes of the Pr<etorian praefects were
essentially different from those of the consuls and
Patricians. The latter saw their ancient greatness
evaporate in a vain title. The former, rising by degrees
from the most humble condition, were invested with
the civil and military administration of the Roman
world. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian,
the guards and the palace, the laws and the finances,
the armies and the provinces, were intrusted to their
superintending care ; and, like the Vizirs of the East,
they held with one hand the seal, and with the other
the standard, of the empire. The ambition of the
prefects, always formidable and sometimes fatal to
the masters whom they served, was supported by the
strength of the Prsetorian bands ; but after those
haughty troops had been weakened by Diocletian, and
finally suppressed by Constantino, the praefects, who
survived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to
the station of useful and obedient ministers. When
they were no longer responsible for the safety of the
emperor's person, they resigned the jurisdiction which
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 189
tliey had hitherto claimed and exercised over all the
departments of the palace. They were deprived by
Constantine of all military command^ as soon as they
had ceased to lead into the field;, under their immediate
orders, the flower of the Roman troops ; and at length,
by a singular revolution, the captains of the guard
were transformed into the civil magistrates of the
provinces. According to the plan of government
instituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each
their Praetorian prsefect ; and, after the monarchy was
once more united in the person of Constantine, he
still continued to create the same number of four
PREFECTS, and intrusted to their care the same
provinces which they already administered. 1. The
prefect of the East stretched his ample jurisdiction
into the three parts of the globe which were subject
to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the
banks of the Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace
to the frontiers of Persia. 2. The important provinces
of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, once
acknowledged the authority of the prsefect of Illyricum.
3. The power of the praefect of Italy was not confined
to the country from whence he derived his title ; it
extended over the additional territory of Rhaetia as
far as the banks of the Danube, over the dependent
islands of the Mediterranean, and over that part of
the continent of Africa which lies between the confines
of Cyrene and those of Tingitania. 4. The praefect of
the Gauls comprehended under that plural denomina-
tion the kindred provinces of Britain and Spain, and
his authority was obeyed from the wall of Antoninus
to the foot of Mount Atlas.
After the Praetorian praefects had been dismissed
from all military command, the civil functions which
they were ordained to exercise over so many subject
nations were adequate to the ambition and abilities
of the most consummate ministers. To their wisdom
was committed the supreme administration of justice
and of the finances, the two objects which, in a state
of peace, comprehend almost all the respective duties
190 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
of the sovereign and of the people ; of the former, to
protect the citizens who are obedient to the laws ; of
the latter, to contribute the share of their property
which is required for the expenses of the state. The
coin, the highways, the posts, the granaries, the
manufactures, whatever could interest the public
prosperity was moderated by the authority of the
Praetorian praefects. As the immediate representatives
of the Imperial majesty, they were empowered to
explain, to enforce, and on some occasions to modify,
the general edicts by their discretionary proclamations.
They watched over the conduct of the provincial
governors, removed the negligent, and inflicted punish-
ments on the guilty. From all the inferior jurisdic-
tions, an appeal in every matter of importance, either
civil or criminal, might be brought before the tribunal
of the praefect : but his sentence was final and absolute ;
and the emperors themselves refused to admit any
complaints against the judgment or the integrity of a
magistrate whom they honoured with such unbounded
confidence. His appointments were suitable to his
dignity ;^ and, if avarice was his ruling passion, he
enjoyed frequent opportunities of collecting a rich
harvest of fees, of presents, and of perquisites.
Though the emperors no longer dreaded the ambition
of their praefects, they were attentive to counterbalance
the power of this great office by the uncertainty and
shortness of its duration.*^
From their superior importance and dignity, Rome
and Constantinople were alone excepted from the juris-
diction of the Praetorian praefects. The immense size
of the city and the experience of the tardy, ineffectual
operation of the laws had furnished the policy of
^ When Justinian, in the exhausted condition of the empire,
instituted a Praetorian praefect for Africa, he allowed him a
salary of one hundred pounds of gold.
^ For this, and the other dignities of the empire, it may be
sufficient to refer to the ample commentaries of Pancirolus and
Godefroy, who have diligently collected and accurately digested
in their proper order all the legal and historical materials.
359 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 191
Augustus with a specious pretence for introducing a
new magistrate, who alone could restrain a servile and
turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbitrary
power. Valerius Messalla was appointed the first pra&-
fect of Rome, that his reputation might countenance
so invidious a measure : but, at the end of a few days,
that accomplished citizen ^ resigned his office, declaring
with a spirit worthy of the friend of Brutus, that he
found himself incapable of exercising a power incom-
patible with public freedom. As the sense of liberty
became less exquisite, the advantages of order were
more clearly understood ; and the praefect, who seemed
to have been designed as a terror only to slaves and
vagrants, was permitted to extend his civil and criminal
jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble families of
Rome. The praetors, annually created as the judges of
law and equity, could not long dispute the possession of
the Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate,
who was usually admitted into the confidence of the
prince. Their courts were deserted, their number,
which had once fluctuated between twelve and eighteen,
was gradually reduced to two or three, and their im-
portant functions were confined to the expensive obli-
gation of exhibiting games for the amusement of the
people. After the office of the Roman consuls had
been changed into a vain pageant, which was rarely
displayed in the capital, the prsefects assumed their
vacant place in the senate, and were soon acknowledged
60 The fame of Messalla has been scarcely equal to his merit.
In the earliest youth he was recommended by Cicero to the
friendship of Brutus. He followed the standard of the republic
till it was broken in the fields of Philippi : he then accepted and
deserved the favour of the most moderate of the conquerors ;
and uniformly asserted his freedom and dignity in the court of
Augustus. The triumph of Messalla was justified by the con-
quest of Aquitain. As an orator he disputed the palm of
eloquence with Cicero himself Messalla cultivated every muse,
and v/as the patron of every man of genius. He spent his
evenings in philosophic conversation with Horace ; assumed his
place at table between Delia and Tibullus ; and amused his
leisure by encouraging the poetical talents of young Ovid.
192 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
as the ordinary presidents of that venerable assembly.
They received appeals from the distance of one hundred
miles ; and it was allowed as a principle of jurispru-
dence, that all municipal authority was derived from
them alone. In the discharge of his laborious employ-
ment, the governor of Rome was assisted by fifteen
officers, some of whom had been originally his equals,
or even his superiors. The principal departments
were relative to the command of a numerous watch,
established as a safeguard against fires, robberies, and
nocturnal disorders ; the custody and distribution of
the public allowance of corn and provisions ; the care
of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common sewers,
and of the navigation and bed of the Tiber ; the in-
spection of the markets, the theatres, and of the private
as well as public works. Their vigilance ensured the
three principal objects of a regular police, safety,
plenty, and cleanliness ; and, as a proof of the atten-
tion of government to preserve the splendour and
ornaments of the capital, a particular inspector was
appointed for the statues ; the guardian, as it were, of
that inanimate people, which, according to the ex-
travagant computation of an old writer, was scarcely
inferior in number to the living inhabitants of Rome.
About thirty years after the foundation of Constanti-
nople, a similar magistrate was created in that rising
metropolis, for the same uses, and with the same
powers. A perfect equality was established between
the dignity of the two municipal, and that of IheJ'our
Praetorian, praefects.^^
Those who, in the Imperial hierarchy, were dis-
tinguished by the title of Respectable, formed an inter-
mediate class between the illustrious praefects and the
honourable magistrates of the provinces. In this class
the proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa claimed a
81 Besides our usual guides, we may observe that Felix Cante-
lorius has written a separate treatise, De Prrefecto Urbis ; and
that many curious details concerning the police of Rome and
Constantinople are contained in the fourteenth book of the
Theodosian Code.
359 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 193
pre-eminence^ which was yielded to the remembrance
of their ancient di^-nity ; and the appeal from their
tribunal to that of the praefects was almost the only
mark of their dependence.^'- But the civil govern-
ment of the empire was distributed into thirteen great
DIOCESES, each of which equalled the just measure of
a powerful kingdom. The first of these dioceses was
subject to the jurisdiction of the count of the east;
and we may convey some idea of the importance and
variety of his functions, by observing that six hundred
apparitors, who would be styled at present either
secretaries, or clerks, or ushers, or messengers, were
employed in his immediate office. °^ The place of
Augusial prcpfect of Egypt was no longer filled by
a Roman knight ; but the name was retained ; and
the extraordinary powers which the situation of the
country and the temper of the inhabitants had once
made indispensable were still continued to the governor.
The eleven remaining dioceses, of Asiana, Pontica,
and Thrace ; of Macedonia, Dacia, and Pannonia or
Western lUyricum ; of Italy and Africa ; of Gaul,
Spain, and Britain ; were governed by twelve vicars
or vice-prcefects ,^^ whose name sufficiently explains
the nature and dependence of their office. It may
be added that the lieutenant-generals of the Roman
armies, the military counts and dukes, who will be
liereafter mentioned, were allowed the rank and title
of Respectable.
As the spirit of jealousy and ostentation prevailed
in the councils of the emperors, they proceeded with
^- Eunapius affirms that the proconsul of Asia was inde-
pendent of the prasfect ; which must, however, be tmderstood
with some allowance : the jurisdiction of the vice-prasfect he
most assuredly disclaimed.
^ The proconsul of Africa had four hundred apparitors ; and
they all received large salaries, either from the treasuiy or the
\ rovince.
*^^ In Italy there was likewise the Vicar of Rome. It has
h-een much disputed, whether his jurisdiction measured one
hundred miles from the city, or whether it stretched over the
ten southern provinces of Italy.
VOL. II. e
194 THE DECLINE AND FALL
anxious diligence to divide the substance, and to
multiply the titles of power. The vast countries which
the Roman conquerors had united under the same
simple form of administration were imperceptibly
crumbled into minute fragments ; till at length the
whole empire was distributed into one hundred and
sixteen provinces, each of which supported an ex-
pensive and splendid establishment. Of these, three
were governed by proconsuls , thirty-seven by consulnrs^
five by correctors, and seventy-one by presidents. The
appellations of these magistrates were different ; they
ranked in successive order, the ensigns of their dignity
were curiously varied, and their situation, from acci-
dental circumstances, might be more or less agreeable
or advantageous. But they were all (excepting only
the proconsuls) alike included in the class of honourable
persons ; and they were alike intrusted, during the
pleasure of the prince, and under the authority of
the prsefects or their deputies, with the administration
of justice and the finances in their respective districts.
The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects ^^
would furnish ample materials for a minute inquiry
into the system of provincial government, as in the
space of six centuries it was improved by the wisdom
of the Roman statesmen and lawyers. It may be
sufficient for the historian to select two singular and
salutary provisions intended to restrain the abuse of
authority. 1. For the preservation of peace and order,
the governors of the provinces were armed with the
sword of justice. They inflicted corporal punistmients,
and they exercised, in capital offences, the power of
life and death. But they were not authorised to
indulge the condemned criminal with the choice of
his own execution, or to pronounce a sentence of the
mildest and most honourable kind of exile. These
65 Among the works of the celebrated Ulpian, there was one
in ten books concerning the office of a proconsul, whose duties
in the most essential articles were the same as those of an ordi-
nary governor of a province.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 195
prerogatives were reserved to the praefects, who alone
could impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds of gold :
their vicegerents were confined to the trifling weight
of a few ounces.^^ This distinction^ which seems to
grant the larger, while it denies the smaller degree
of authority, was founded on a very rational motive.
The smaller degree was infinitely more liable to abuse.
The passions of a provincial magistrate might frequently
provoke him into acts of oppression which affected
only the freedom or the fortunes of the subject ;
though, from a principle of prudence, perhaps of
humanity, he might still be terrified by the guilt of
innocent blood. It may likewise be considered that
exile, considerable fines, or the choice of an easy death
relate more particularly to the rich and the noble ;
and the persons the most exposed to the avarice or
resentment of a provincial magistrate were thus removed
from his obscure persecution to the more august and
impartial tribunal of the Praetorian prsefect. 2. As it
was reasonably apprehended that the integrity of the
judge might be biassed, if his interest was concerned
or his affections were engaged ; the strictest regula-
tions were established to exclude any person, without
the special dispensation of the emperor, from the
government of the province where he was born ; and
to prohibit the governor or his son from contracting
marriage with a native or an inhabitant ; or from
'purchasing slaves, lauds, or houses, within the extent
of his jurisdiction. Notwithstanding these rigorous
precautions, the emperor Constantine, after a reign of
twenty-five years, still deplores the venal and oppressive
administration of justice, and expresses the warmest
indignation that the audience of the judge, his despatch
of business, his seasonable delays, and his final sentence
were publicly sold, either by himself or by the oflficers
of his court. The continuance, and perhaps the im-
66 The presidents, or consulars, could impose only two ounces ;
the vice-prasfects, three ; the proconsuls, count of the east, and
praefect of Egypt, six.
196 THE DECLINE AND FALL
punity, of tbese crimes is attested by the repetition of
important laws and ineffectual menaces.^''
All the civil magistrates were drawn from the pro-
fession of the law. The celebrated Institutes of
Justinian are addressed to the youth of his dominions^
who had devoted themselves to the study of Roman
jurisprudence ; and the sovereign condescends to
animate their diligence by the assurance that their
skill and ability would in time be rew^arded by an
adequate share in the government of the republic.
The rudiments of this lucrative science were taught in
all the considerable cities of the east and west ; but
the most famous school was that of Berytus,^^ on the
coast of Pha?nicia ; which flourished above three
centuries from the time of Alexander Severus, the
author perhaps of an institution so advantageous to
his native country. After a regular course of educa-
tion^ which lasted five years, the students dispersed
themselves through the provinces, in search of fortune
and honours ; nor could they want an inexhaustible
supply of business in a great empire, already corrupted
by the multiplicity of laws, of arts, and of vices. The
court of the Prjetorian praefect of the east could alone
furnish employment for one hundred and fifty ad-
vocates, 8ixty-four of whom were distinguished by
peculiar privileges, and two were annually chosen with
a salary of sixty pounds of gold, to defend the causes
of the treasury. The first experiment was made of
their judicial talents, by appointing them to act
occasionally as assessors to the magistrates ; from
thence they were often raised to preside in the tribunals
before which they had pleaded. They obtained the
government of a province ; and, by the aid of merit,
67 Zeno enacted that all governors should remain in the pro-
vince, to answer any accusations, fifty days after the expiration
of their power. Cod. Justinian. 1. ii. tit. xlix. leg. i.
68 The splendour of the school o^ Berytus, which preserved
in the east the language and jurisprudence of the Romans, may
be computed to have lasted from the third to the middle of the
sixth century.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 197
of reputation, or of favour, they asceuded, by successive
steps, to the illustrious dignities of the state.^^ In the
practice of the bar, these men had considered reason
as the instrument of dispute ; they interpreted the
laws according- to the dictates of private interest ; and
the same pernicious habits might still adhere to their
characters in the public administration of the state.
The honour of a liberal profession has indeed been
vindicated by ancient and modern advocates, who have
filled the most important stations with pure integrity
and consummate wisdom : but in the decline of Roman
jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion of lawyers was
pregnant with mischief and disgrace. The noble art,
which had once been preserved as the sacred inheritance
of the patricians, was fallen into the hands of freedmen
and plebeians, who, with cunning rather than with
skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade. Some
of them procured admittance into families for the
purpose of fomenting differences, of encouraging suits,
and of preparing a harvest of gain for themselves or
their brethren. Others, recluse in their chambers,
^9 As in a former period I have traced the civil and military
promotion of Pertinax, I shall here insert the civil honours of
Mallius Theodoras, i. He was distinguished by his eloquence,
while he pleaded as an advocate in the court of the Praetorian
praefect. 2. He governed one of the provinces of Africa, either
as president or consular, and deserved, by his administration,
the honour of a brass statue. 3. He was appointed vicar,
or vice-praefect, of Macedonia. 4. Quaestor. 5. Count of the
sacred largesses. 6. Praetorian praefect of the Gauls ; whilst
he might yet be represented as a young man. 7. After a
retreat, perhaps a disgrace, of many years, which Mallius (con-
founded by some critics with the poet Manilius) employed in
the study of the Grecian philosophy, he was named Praetorian
praefect of Italy, in the year 397. 8. While he still exercised
that great office, he was created, in the year 399, consul for the
West ; and his name, on account of the infamy of his colleague,
the eunuch Eutropius, often stands alone in the Fasti. 9. In
the year 408, Mallius was appointed a second time Praetorian
praefect of Italy. Even in the venal panegyric of Claudian, we
may discover the merit of Mallius Theodorus, who, by a rare
felicitv, was the intimate friend both of Symmachus and of St.
Augustin.
198 THE DECLINE AND FALL
maintained the dignity of legal professors by furnishing
a rich client with subtleties to confound the plainest
truth and with arguments to colour the most unjusti-
fiable pretensions. The splendid and popular class was
composed of the advocates^ who filled the Forum with
the sound of their turgid and loquacious rhetoric.
Careless of fame and of justice, they are described,
for the most part, as ignorant and rapacious guides,
who conducted their clients through a maze of expense,
of delay, and of disappointment ; from whence, after
a tedious series of years, they were at length dis-
missed, when their patience and fortune were almost
exhausted.
in. In the system of policy introduced by Augustus,
the governors, those at least of the Imperial provinces,
were invested with the full powers of the sovereign
himself. Ministers of peace and war, the distribution
of rewards and punishments depended on them alone,
and they successively appeared on their tribunal in
the robes of civil magistracy, and in complete armour
at the head of the Roman legionsJ^ The influence of
the revenue, the authority of law, and the command
of a military force concurred to render their power
supreme and absolute ; and whenever they were
tempted to violate their allegiance, the loyal province
which they involved in their rebellion was scarcely
sensible of any change in its political state. From the
time of Commodus to the reign of Constantine, near
one hundred governors might be enumerated, who,
with various success, erected the standard of revolt ;
and though the innocent were too often sacrificed, the
guilty might be sometimes prevented, by the suspicious
cruelty of their master.^^ To secure his throne and
'0 The lieutenant of Britain was intrusted with the same
powers which Cicero, proconsul of Cilicia, had exercised in the
name of the senate and people.
71 The AbW Dubos, who has examined with accuracy the
institutions of Augustus and of Constantine, observes that, if
Otho had been put to death the day before he executed his
conspiracy, Otho would now appear in history as innocent as
Corbulo.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 199
the public tranquillity from these formidable servants.
Constantine resolved to divide the military from the
civil administration ; and to establish^ as a perman-
ent and professional distinction, a practice which
had been adopted only as an occasional expedient.
The supreme jurisdiction exercised by the Praetorian
praefects over the armies of the empire was transferred
to the two masters general whom he instituted, the one
for the cavalry, the other for the infantry; and, though
each of these illustriov^ officers was more peculiarly
responsible for the discipline of those troops which
were under his immediate inspection, they both in-
differently commanded in the field the several bodies,
whether of horse or foot, which were united in the
same army. Their number was soon doubled by the
division of the east and west; and, as separate generals
of the same rank and title were appointed on the four
important frontiers of the Rhine, of the U]>per and the
Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates, the defence of
the Roman empire was at length committed to eight
masters general of the cavalry and infantry. Under
their orders, thirty-five military commanders were
stationed in the provinces : three in Britain, six in
Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy, five on the Upper,
and four on the Lower Danube ; in Asia eight, three
in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of counts,
and dukes,''^ by which they were properly distinguished,
have obtained in modern languages so very different a
sense that the use of them may occasion some surprise.
But it should be recollected that the second of those
appellations is only a corruption of the Latin word
which was indiscriminately applied to any military
chief All these provincial generals were therefore
dukes; but no more than ten among them were dignified
with the rank of counts or companions, a title of
■^ Though the military counts and dukes are frequently men-
tioned, both in history and the codes, we must have recourse
to the Notitia for the exact knowledge of their number and
200 THE DECLINE AND FALL
honour, or rather of favour, which had been recently
invented in the court of Constantine. A gold belt
was the ensign which distinguished the office of the
counts and dukes ; and besides their pay, they received
a liberal allowance, sufficient to maintain one hundred
and ninety servants, and one hundred and fifty-eight
horses. They were strictly prohibited from interfering
iu any matter which related to the administration of
justice or the revenue ; but the command which they
exercised over the troops of their department was
independent of the authority of the magistrates. About
the same time that Constantine gave a legal sanction
to the ecclesiastical order, he instituted in the Roman
empire the nice balance of the civil and the military
powers. The emulation, and sometimes the discord,
which reigned between two professions of opposite
interests and incompatible manners, was productive
of beneficial and of pernicious consequences. It v^as
seldom to be expected that the general and the civil
governor of a province should either conspire for the
disturbance, or should unite for the service, of their
country. ^Vhile the one delayed to offer the assistance
which the other disdained to solicit, the troops very
frequently remained without orders or without sup-
plies; the public safety was betrayed, and the de-
fenceless subjects were left exposed to the fury of
the Barbarians. The divided administration which
had been formed by Constantine relaxed the vigour
of the state, while it secured the tranquillity of the
monarch.
The memory of Constantine has been deservedly
censured for another innovation, which corrupted
military discipline and prepared the ruin of the empire.
The nineteen years which preceded his final victory
over Licinius had been a period of licence and intestine
war. The rivals who contended for the possession of
the Roman world had withdrawn the greatest part of
their forces from the guard of the general frontier ;
and the principal cities which formed the boundary of
their respective dominions were filled with soldiers.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 201
who considered their countrymen as their most im-
placable enemies. After the use of these interna]
garrisons had ceased with the civil war, the conqueror
wanted either wisdom or firmness to revive the severe
discipline of Diocletian^ and to suy>[»ress a fatal indul-
gence which habit had endeared and almost confirmed
to the military order. From the reiirn of Constantine^
a popular and even legal distinction was admitted
between the Palatines'''^ and the Hnrdf-rers ; the troops
of the court as they were impri)|)erly styled, and the
troops of the frontier. The former, elevated by the
superiority of their pay and privileges, were per-
mitted, except in the extraordinary emergencies of
war, to occupy their tranquil stations in the heart
of the provinces. The mo^t flourishing cities were
oppressed by the intolerable weiirht of quarters. The
soldiers insensibly forgot the virtues of their profession,
and contracted only the vices of civil life. They were
either degraded by the industry of mechanic trades,
or enervated by the luxury of baths and theatres.
They soon became careless of their martial exercises,
curious in their diet and apparel ; and, while they
inspired terror to the subjects of the empire, they
trembled at the hostile approach of the Barbarians.^'*
The chain of fortifications which Diocletian and his
colleagues had extended alone: the banks of the great
rivers was no longer maintained with the same care
or defended with the same vigilance. Tlie numbers
which still remained under the name of the troops
of the frontier might be sufficient for the ordinary
■3 The distinction between the two classes of Roman troops
is very darkly expressed in the historians, the laws, and the
Notitia. Consult, however, the copious faratitlon, or abstract,
which Godefroy has drawn up of the seventh book, de Re
Militari, of the Theodosian Code, 1. vii. tit. i. leg. 18, 1. viii.
tit. i. leg. 10.
'^ Ferox erat in suos miles et rapax, ignavus, vero in hostes
et fractus. Ammian. 1. xxii. c. 4. He observes that they loved
downy beds and houses of marble ; and that their cups were
heavier than their swords.
VOL. II, G 2
202 THE DECLINE AND FALL
defence. But their spirit was degraded by the humi-
liating- reflection that they who were exposed 'to the
hardships and dangers of a perpetual warfare were
rewarded only with about two-thirds of the pay and
emoluments which were lavished on the troops of
the court. Even the bands or legions that were raised
the nearest to the level of those unworthy favourites
were in some measure disgraced by the title of honour
which they were allowed to assume. It was in vain
that Constantino repeated the most dreadful menaces
of fire and sword against the Borderers who should
dare to desert their colours^ to connive at the inroads
of the Barbarians, or to participate in the spoil.
The mischiefs which flow from injudicious counsels are
seldom removed by the application of partial severities ;
and, though succeeding princes laboured to restore
the strength and numbers of the frontier garrisons,
the empire, till the last moment of its dissolution,
continued to languish under the mortal wound which
had been so rashly or so weakly inflicted by the hand
of Constantine.
The same timid policy, of dividing whatever is
united, of reducing whatever is eminent, of dreading
every active power, and of expecting that the most
feeble will prove the most obedient, seems to pervade
the institutions of several princes, and particularly
those of Constantine. The martial pride of the legions,
whose victorious camps had so often been the scene of
rebellion, was nourished by the memory of their past
exploits and the consciousness of their actual strength.
As long as they maintained their ancient establishment
of six thousand men, they subsisted, under the reign
of Diocletian, each of them singly, a visible and im-
portant object in the military history of the Roman
empire. A few years afterwards these gigantic bodies
were shrunk to a very diminutive size ; and, when
seven legions, with some auxiliaries, defended the city
of Amida against the Persians, the total garrison, with
the inhabitants of both sexes, and the peasants of the
deserted country, did not exceed the number of twenty
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 203
thousand persons. ^^ From this fact, and from similar
examples, there is reason to believe that the constitu-
tion of the legionary troops, to which they partly
owed their valour and discipline, was dissolved by
Constantine ; and that the bands of Roman infantry,
which still assumed the same names and the same
honours, consisted only of one thousand or fifteen
hundred men. The conspiracy of so many separate
detachments, each of which was awed by the sense of
its own weakness, could easily be checked ; and the
successors of Constantine might indulge their love of
ostentation, by issuing their orders to one hundred
and thirty-two legions, inscribed on the muster-roll of
their numerous armies. The remainder of their troops
was distributedjiuto several hundred cohorts of infantry,
and squadrons of cavalry. Their arms, and titles, and
ensigns were calculated to inspire terror, and to dis-
play the variety of nations who marched under the
Imperial standard. And not a vestige was left of that
severe simplicity which, in the ages of freedom and
victory, had distinguished the line of battle of a Roman
army from the confused host of an Asiatic monarch.
A more particular enumeration, drawn from the
Notitia, might exercise the diligence of an antiquary ;
but the historian will content himself with observing
that the number of permanent stations or garrisons
established on the frontiers of the empire amounted to
five hundred and eighty-three ; and that, under the
successors of Constantine, the complete force of the
military establishm.ent was computed at six hundred
and forty-five thousand soldiers. An efl'ort so pro-
digious surpassed the wants of a more ancient, and the
faculties of a later, period.
In the various states of society, armies are recruited
from very different motives. Barbai-ians are urged by
the love of war ; the citizens of a free republic may be
75 Aramian. 1. xix. c. 2. He observes (c. 5), that the desperate
sallies of two Gallic legions were like an handful of water thrown
on a great conflagration.
204 THE DECLINE AND FALL
prompted by a principle of duty ; the subjects, or at
least the nobles, of a monarchy are animated by a
sentiment of honour; but the timid and luxurious
inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into
the service by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the
dread of punishment. The resources of the Roman
treasury were exhausted by the increase of pay, by the
repetition of donatives, and by the invention of new
emoluments and indulgences, which, in the opinion of
the provincial youth, might compensate the hardships
and dangers of a military life. Yet, although the
stature was lowered/^ although slaves, at least by a
tacit connivance, were indiscriminately received into
the ranks, the insurmountable difficulty of procuring
a regular and adequate supply of volunteers obliged
the emperors to adopt more effectual and coercive
methods. Tlie lands bestowed on the veterans, as the
free reward of their valour, were henceforward granted
under a condition, which contains the first rudiments
of the feudal tenures ; that their sons, who succeeded
to the inheritance, should devote themselves to the
profession of arms, as soon as they attained the age of
manhood ; and their cowardly refusal was punished
by the loss of honour, of fortune, or even of life.^"
But, as the annual growth of the sons of the veterans
bore a very small proportion to the demands of the
service, levies of men were frequently required from
the provinces, and every proprietor was obliged either
to take up arms, or to procure a substitute, or to
purchase his exemption by the payment of a heavy
fine. The sum of forty-two pieces of gold, to which
76 Valentinian (Cod. Theodos, 1. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 3) fixes the
standard at five feet seven inches, about five feet four inches
and a half English measure. It had formerly been five feet ten
inches, and in the best corps six Roman feet.
77 See the two titles, De Veteranis, and De Filiis Veteranorum,
in the seventh book of the Theodosian Code. The age at which
their military service was required varied from twenty-five to
sixteen. If the sons of the veterans appeared with a horse, they
had a right to serve in the cavalry ; two horses gave them some
valuable privileges.
i
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 205
it was reduced, ascertains the exorbitant price of
volunteers and the reluctance with which the govern-
ment admitted of this alternative."* Such was the
liorror for the profession of a soldier which had affected
the minds of the degenerate Romans that many of the
vouth of Italy and the provinces chose to cut off the
ringers of their right hand to escape from being pressed
into the service ; and this strange expedient was so
commonly practised as to deserve the severe aniuiad-
version of the laws"^ and a peculiar name in the Latin
language.'^
The introduction of Barbarians into the Roman
armies became every day more universal, more neces-
sary, and more fatal. The most daring of the Scythians,
of the Goths, and of the Germans, who delighted in
war, and who found it more profitable to defend than
to ravage the provinces, were enrolled, not only in
the auxiliaries of their respective nations, but in the
legions themselves, and among the most distinguished
of the Palatine troops. As they freely mingled with
the subjects of the empire, they gradually learned to
■^8 According to the historian Socrates (see Godefroy ad. loc),
the same emperor Valens sometimes required eighty pieces of
gold for a recruit. In the following law it is faintly expressed
that slaves shall not be admitied inter optimas lectissimorum
militum turmas.
■^9 The person and property of a Roman knight, who had
mutilated his two sons, were sold by public auction by the
order of Augustus. The moderation of that artful usurper
proves that this example of severity was justified by the spirit
of the times. Ammianus makes a distinction between the
effeminate Italians and the hardy Gauls. Yet only fifteen years
afterwards, Valentinian, in a law addressed to the prsefect of
Gaul, is obliged to enact that these cowardly deserters shall
be burnt alive. Their numbers in Illyricum were so consider-
able that the province complained of a scarcity of recruits
(id. leg. lo).
^ They were called Murci. Murcidus is found in Plautus
and Festus, to denote a lazy and cowardly person, who, accord-
ing to Arnobius and Augustin, was under the immediate pro-
tection of the goddess Murcia. From this particular instance
of cowardice, murcare is used as synonymous to mutilare, by
the writers of the middle Latinity.
206 THE DECLINE AND FALL
despise their manners and to imitate their arts. They
abjured the implicit reverence which the pride of
Rome had exacted from their ignorance^ while they
acquired the knowledge and possession of those ad-
vantages by which alone she supported her declining
greatness. The Barbarian soldiers who displayed any
military talents were advanced^ without exception, to
the most important commands ; and the names of the
tribunes, of the counts and dukes, and of the generals
themselves, betray a foreign origin, which they no
longer condescended to disguise. They were often
entrusted with the conduct of a war against their
countrymen ; and, though most of them preferred the
ties of allegiance to those of blood, they did not
always avoid the guilt, or at least the suspicion, of
holding a treasonable correspondence with the enemy,
of inviting his invasion, or of sparing his retreat.
The camps and the palace of the son of Constantine
were governed by the powerful faction of the Franks,
who preserved the strictest connection with each other
and with their country, and who resented every personal
affront as a national indignity. When the tyrant
Caligula was suspected of an intention to invest a very
extraordinary candidate with the consular robes, the
sacrilegious profanation would have scarcely excited
less astonishment, if, instead of a horse, the noblest
chieftain of Germany or Britain had been the object
of his choice. The revolution of three centuries had
produced so remarkable a change in the prejudices of
the people that, with the public approbation, Constan-
tine showed his successors the example of bestowing
the honours of the consulship on the Barbarians who,
by their merit and services, had deserved to be ranked
among the first of the Romans, ^^ But as these hardy
81 Eusebius (in Vit. Constantin. 1. iv. c. 7) and Aurelius
Victor seem to confirm the truth of this assertion ; yet in the
thirty-two consular Fasti of the reign of Constantine I cannot
discover the name of a single Barbarian. I should therefore
interpret the liberality of that prince, as relative to the orna-
ments, rather than to the ofnce, of the consulship.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 207
veterans, who had heen educated in the ignorance or
contempt of the laws, were incapable of exercising- any
civil offices, the powers of the human mind were con-
tracted by the irreconcilable separation of talents as
well as of professions. The accomplished citizens of
the Greek and Roman republics, whose characters
could adapt themselves to the bar, the senate, the
camp, or the schools, had learned to write, to speak,
and to act, with the same spirit, and with equal
abilities.
IV. Besides the magistrates and generals, who at a
distance from the court diffused their delegated autho-
rity over the provinces and armies, the emperor con-
ferred the rank of Illustrious on seven of his more
immediate servants, to whose fidelity he entrusted
his safety, or his counsels, or his treasures. 1. The
private apartments of the j)alace were governed by a
favourite eunuch, who, in the language of that age,
was styled the prcepositus or pra?fect of the sacred bed-
chamber. His duty was to attend the emperor in his
hours of state, or in those of amusement, and to
perform about his person all those menial services
which can only derive their splendour from the influ-
ence of royalty. Under a prince who deserved to
reign, the great chamberlain (for such we may call
him) was an useful and humble domestic ; but an artful
domestic, who improves every occasion of unguarded
confidence, will insensibly acquire over a feeble mind
that ascendant which harsh wisdom and uncomplying
virtue can seldom obtain. The degenerate grandsons
of Theodosius, who were invisible to their subjects and
contemptible to their enemies, exalted the prsefects of
their bed-chamber above the heads of all the ministers
of the palace ; and even his deputy, the first of the
splendid train of slaves who waited in the presence,
was thought worthy to rank before the respectable
proconsuls of Greece or Asia. The jurisdiction of
the chamberlain was acknowledged by the counts,
or superintendents, who regulated the two impor-
tant provinces of the magnificence of tjie wardrobe
208 THE DECLINE AND FALL
and of the luxury of the Imperial table.^^ 2. The
principal administration of public affairs was com-
mitted to the dilig-euce and abilities of the master of
the oj/ices,^^ He was tlie supreme magistrate of the
palace, inspected the discipline of the civil and military
schools, and received appeals from all parts of the
empire ; in the causes which related to that numerous
army of privileged persons who, as the servants of the
court, had obtained, for themselves and families, a
right to decline tiie authority of the ordinary judges.
The correspondence between the prince and his subjects
was managed by the four scrinia or offices of this
minister of state. The first was appropriated to memo-
rials, the second to epistles, the third to petitions, and
the fourth to pa})ers and orders of a miscellaneous
kind. Each of these was directed by an inferior master
of respectable dignity, and the whole business was des-
patched by an liundre*! and forty-eight secretaries,
chosen for the most part from the profession of the
law, on account of the variety of abstracts of reports
and references whicfi frequently occurred in the exer-
cise of their several functions. From a condescension,
which in former ages would have been esteemed un-
worthy of the Roman majesty, a particular secretary
was allowed for the Cireek language ; and interpreters
were appointed to receive the ambassadors of the
Barbarians : but the department of foreign affairs,
82 By a very singular metaphor, borrowed from the military
character of the first emperors, the steward of their household
was styled the count of iiieir camp (comes castrensis). Cassio-
dorius very seriously represents to him that his own fame, and
that of the empire, must depend on the opinion which foreign
ambassadors may conceive of the plenty and magnificence of
the royal table.
83 Gutherius (de Officiis Domils Augustse, 1. ii. c. 20, 1. iii.)
has very accurately ex|>lained the functions of the master of the
offices and the constitution o; his subordinate scrinia. But he
vainly attempts, on the most doubtful authority, to deduce from
the time of the Anionines, or even of Nero, the origin of a
magistrate who cannot be found in history before the reign of
Constantine.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 209
-w^hich constitutes so essential a part of modern policy,
seldom diverted the attention of the master of the
offices. His mind was more seriously engaged by the
general direction of the posts and arsenals of the
empire. There were thirty-four cities, fifteen in the
east, and nineteen in the west, in which regular
companies of workmen were perpetually employed in
fabricating defensive armour, offensive weapons of all
sorts, and military engines, which were deposited in
the arsenals, and occasionally delivered for the service
of the troops. 3. In the course of nine centuries, the
office of qactstor had experienced a very singular
revolution. In the infancy of Rome, two inferior
magistrates were annually elected by the people, to
relieve the consuls from the invidious management of
the public treasure ; ^^ a similar assistant was granted
to every proconsul, and to every praetor, who exercised
a military or provincial command ; with the extent of
conquest, the two quaestors were gradually multiplied
to the number of four, of eight, of twenty, and, for a
short time, perhaps, of forty ; ^^ and the noblest citizens
ambitiously solicited an office which gave them a seat
in the senate, and a just hope of obtaining the honours
of the republic, ^\'hilst Augustus affected to maintain
the freedom of election, he consented to accept the
annual privilege of recommending, or rather indeed
of nominating, a certain proportion of candidates ;
and it was his custom, to select one of these distin-
guished youths, to read his orations or epistles in the
assemblies of the senate. The practice of Augustus
^ Tacitus (Annal. xi. 22) says that the first quaestors were
elected by the people, sixty-four years after the foundation of
the republic ; but he is of opinion that they had, long before
that period, been annually appointed by the consuls, and even
by the kings. But this obscure point of antiquity is contested
by other writers.
85 Tacitus seems to consider twenty as the highest number
of qucestors ; and Dion, insinuates that, if the dictator Caesar
once created forty, it was only to facilitate the payment of an
immense debt of gratitude. Yet the augmentation which he
made of praetors subsisted under the succeeding reigns.
210 THE DECLINE AND FALL
was imitated by succeeding princes ; the occasional
commission was established as a permanent office ;
and the favoured quaestor, assuming a new and more
illustrious character, alone survived the suppression of
his ancient and useless colleagues. ^^ As the orations
which he composed in the name of the emperor ^^ ac-
quired the force, and, at length, the form of absolute
edicts, he was considered as the representative of the
legislative power, the oracle of the council, and the
original source of the civil jurisprudence. He was
sometimes invited to take his seat in the supreme
judicature of the Imperial consistory, with the Prae-
torian praefects, and the master of the offices ; and he
was frequently requested to resolve the doubts of
inferior judges ; but, as he was not oppressed with a
variety of subordinate business, his leisure and talents
were employed to cultivate that dignified style of elo-
quence which, in the corruption of taste and language,
still preserves the majesty of the Roman laws. In
some respects, the office of the Imperial quaestor may
be compared with that of a modern chancellor ; but
tlie use of a great seal, which seems to have been
adopted by the illiterate Barbarians, was never intro-
duced to attest the public acts of the emperors. 4.
The extraordinary title of count of the sacred largesses
86 The youth and inexperience of the quaestors, who entered
on that important office in their twenty-fifth year, engaged
Augustus to remove them from the management of the treasury;
and, though they were restored by Claudius, they seem to have
been finally dismissed by Nero. In the provinces of the Im-
perial division, the place of the quaestors was more ably sup-
plied by the procurators ; or, as they were afterwards called,
rationales. But in the provinces of the senate we may still
discover a series of qucestors till the reign of Marcus Antoninus.
From Ulpian we may learn (Pandect. 1. i. tit. 13) that, under
the government of the house of Severus, their provincial ad-
ministration was abolished ; and in the subsequent troubles the
annual or triennial elections of quaestors must have naturally
ceased.
S" The office must have acquired new dignity, which was occa-
sionally executed by the heir-apparent of the empire. Trajan
entrusted the same care to Hadrian his quaestor and cousin.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 211
was bestowed on the treasurer-general of the revenue,
with the intention perhaps of inculcating that every
payment flowed from the voluntary bounty of the
monarch. To conceive the almost infinite detail of
the annual and daily expense of the civil and military
administration in every part of a great empire would
exceed the powers of the most vigorous imagination.
The actual account employed several hundred persons,
distributed into eleven different offices, which were
artfully contrived to examine and control their re-
spective operations. The multitude of these agents
had a natural tendency to increase ; and it was more
than once thought expedient to dismiss to their native
homes the useless supernumeraries, who, deserting
their honest labours, had pressed with too much eager-
ness into the lucrative profession of the finances.
Twenty-nine pro\'incial receivers, of whom eighteen
were honoured with the title of count, corresponded
with the treasurer ; and he extended his jurisdiction
over the mines, from whence the precious metals were
extracted, over the mints, in which they were con-
verted into the current coin, and over the public
treasuries of the most important cities, where they
were deposited for the service of the state. The
foreign trade of the empire was regulated by this
minister, who directed likewise all the linen and
woollen manufactures, in which the successive opera-
tions of spinning, weaving, and dyeing were executed,
chiefly by women of a servile condition, for the use
of the palace and army. Twenty-six of these institu-
tions are enumerated in the west, where the arts had
been more recently introduced, and a still larger
proportion may be allowed for the industrious pro-
vinces of the east.^^ 5. Besides the public revenue,
88 In the departments of the two counts of the treasury, the
eastern part of the Notitia happens to be very defective. It
may be observed that we had a treasury-chest in London, and
a gyneceum or manufacture at Winchester. But Britain was
not thought worthy either of a mint or of an arsenal. Gaul
alone possessed three of the former, and eight of the latter.
212 THE DECLINE AND FALL
whicli an absolute monarch might levy and expend
according to his pleasure, the emperors, in the capacity
of opulent citizens, possessed a very extensive property,
which was administered by the count, or treasurer, of
the private estate. Some part had perhaps been the
ancient demesnes of kings and republics ; some ac-
cessions might be derived from the families which
were successively invested with the purple ; but the
most considerable portion flowed from the impure
source of confiscations and forfeitures. The Imperial
estates were scattered through the provinces, from
Mauritania to Britain ; but the rich and fertile soil
of Cappadocia tempted the monarch to acquire in that
country his fairest possessions, and either Constantine
or his successors embraced the occasion of justifying
avarice by religious zeal. They suppressed the rich
temple of Comana, where the high priest of the
goddess of war suf)ported the dignity of a sovereign
prince ; and they applied to their private use the con-
secrated lands, which were inhabited by six thousand
subjects or slaves of the Deity and her ministers.^^
But these were not the valuable inhabitants ; the plains
that stretch from the foot of Mount Argseus to the
banks of the Sarus bred a generous race of horses,
renowned above all others in the ancient world
for 'their majestic shape and incomparable swiftness.
These sacred animals, destined for the service of the
palace and the Imperial games, were protected by the
laws from the profanation of a vulgar master.^ The
8* The other temple of Comana, in Pontus, was a colony
from that of Cappadocia. The president Des Brosses (see his
Saluste, torn. ii. p. 21) conjectures that the deity adored in both
Coraanas was Beliis, the Venus of the east, the goddess of
generation ; a very different being indeed from the goddess of
war.
^ Godefroy has collected every circumstance of antiquity
relative to the Cappadocian horses. One of the finest breeds,
the Palmatian, was the forfeiture of a rebel, whose estate lay
about sixteen miles from Tyana, near the great road between
Constantinople and Antioch.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 213
demesnes of Cappadocia were importaut enough to
require the inspection of a count i'-'^ officers of an in-
ferior rank were stationed in the other parts of the
empire ; and the deputies of the private, as well as
those of the public, treasurer were maintained in the
exercise of their independent functions, and encouraged
to control the authority of the provincial magistrates.
6, 7. The chosen bands of cavalry and infantry which
guarded the person of the emperor, were under the
immediate command of the tu-o counts of the domestics.
The whole number consisted of tliree thousand five
hundred men, divided into seven schools, or troops, of
tive hundred each ; and in the east, this honourable ser-
vice was almost entirely appropriated to the Armenians.
Whenever, on public ceremonies, they were drawn up
in the courts and porticoes of the palace, their lofty
stature, silent order, and splendid arms of silver and
gold displayed a martial pomp, not unworthy of the
Roman majesty. From the seven schools two com-
panies of horse and foot were selected, of the protec-
tors, whose advantageous station was the hope and
reward of the most deserving soldiers. They mounted
guard in the interior apartments, and were occasionally
despatched into the provinces to execute with celerity
and vigour the orders of their master. '^^ The counts
of the domestics had succeeded to the office of the
Praetorian praefects ; like the praefects, they aspired
from the [service of the palace to the command of
armies.
The perpetual intercourse between the court and
the provinces was facilitated by the construction of
roads and the institution of posts. But these bene-
ficial establishments were accidentally connected with
a pernicious and intolerable abuse. Two or three
91 Justinian subjected the province of the count of Cappa-
docia to the immediate authority of the favourite eunuch who
presided over the sacred bed-chamber,
92 Ammianus MarcelHnus, who served so many years, ob-
tained only the rank of a Protector. The first ten among these
honourable soldiers were Clarissitni.
214 THE DECLINE AND FALL
hundred agents or messengers were employed, under
the jurisdiction of the master of the offices, to announce
the names of the annual consuls and the edicts or
victories of the emperors. They insensibly assumed
the licence of reporting whatever they could observe
of the conduct either of magistrates or of private
citizens ; and were soon considered as the eyes of the
monarch, and the scourge of the people, tinder the
warm influence of a feeble reign, they multiplied to
the incredible number of ten thousand, disdained the
mild though frequent admonitions of the laws, and
exercised in the profitable management of the posts a
rapacious and insolent oppression. These official spies,
who regularly corresponded with the palace, were en-
couraged, by favour and reward, anxiously to watch
the progress of every treasonable design, from the
faint and latent symptoms of disaffection to the actual
preparation of an open revolt. Their careless or
criminal violation of truth and justice was covered by
the consecrated mask of zeal ; and they might securely
aim their poisoned arrows at the breast either of the
guilty or the innocent, who had provoked their resent-
ment or refused to purchase their silence. A faithful
subject, of Syria perhaps, or of Britain, was exposed
to the danger, or at least to the dread, of being dragged
in chains to the court of Milan or Constantinople,
to defend his life and fortune against the malicious
charge of these privileged informers. The ordinary
administration was conducted by those methods which
extreme necessity can alone palliate ; and the defects
of evidence were diligently supplied by the use of
torture.
The deceitful and dangerous experiment of the
criminal question, as it is emphatically styled, was
admitted, rather than approved, in the jurisprudence
of the Romans. They applied this sanguinary mode
of examination only to servile bodies, whose sufferings
were seldom weighed by those haughty republicans in
the scale of justice or humanity : but they would never
consent to violate the sacred person of a citizen, till
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 215
they possessed the clearest evidence of his guilt ^^ The
annals of tyranny, from the reign of Tiberius to that
of Domitian, circumstantially relate the executions of
many innocent victims ; but, as long as the faintest
remembrance was kept alive of the national freedom
and honour, the last hours of a Roman were secure
from the danger of ignominious torture.^^ The conduct
of the provincial magistrates was not, however, regu-
lated by the practice of the city or the strict maxims
of the' civilians. They found the use of torture
established, not only among the slaves of oriental
despotism, but among the Macedonians, who obeyed a
limited monarch ; among the Rhodians, who flourished
by the liberty of commerce ; and even among the sage
Athenians, who had asserted and adorned the dignity
of human kind. The acquiescence of the provincials
encouraged their governors to acquire, or perhaps to
usurp, a discretionary power of employing the rack,
to extort from vagrants or plebeian criminals the
confession of their g-uilt, till they insensibly proceeded
to confuund the distinction of rank and to disregard
the pri\aleges of Roman citizens. The apprehensions
of the subjects urged them to solicit, and the interest
of the sovereign engatred him to grant, a variety of
special exemptions, which tacitly allowed, and even
authorised, the general use of torture. They protected
all persons of illustrious or honourable rank, bishops
and their presbyters, professors of the liberal arts,
soldiers and their families, municipal officers, and
their posterity to the third generation, and all
children under the age of puberty. But a fatal
83 The Pandects (1. xlviii. tit. xviii.) contain the sentiments
of the most celebrated civilians on the subject of torture. They
strictly confine it to slaves ; and Ulpian himself is ready to
acknowledge that Res est fragilis, et periculosa, et quae veritatem
fallat.
94 In the conspiracy of Piso against Nero, Epicharis (libertina
mulier) was the only person tortured ; the rest were intacti
tormeniis. It would be superfluous to add a weaker, and it
would be difBcult to f.nd a stronger, examole.
216 THE DECLINE AND FALL
maxim was introduced into the new jurisprudence of
the empire, that in the case of treason, which included
every offence that the subtlety of lawyers could derive
from an hostile intention towards tlie prince or republic,^^
all privileges were suspended, and all conditions were
reduced to the same ignominious level. As the safety
of the emperor was avowedly preferred to every con-
sideration of justice or humanity, the dignity of age
and the tenderness of youth were alike exposed to
the most cruel tortures ; and the terrors of a malicious
information, which might select them as the accom-
plices, or even as the witnesses, perhaps, of an imaginary
crime, perpetually hung over the heads of the principal
citizens of the Roman world. ^^
These evils, however terrible they may appear, were
confined to the smaller number of Roman subjects,
whose dangerous situation was in some degree com-
pensated by the enjoyment of those advantages, either
of nature or of fortune, which exposed them to the
jealousy of the monarch. The obscure millions of a
great empire have much less to dread from the cruelty
than from the avarice of their masters ; and their
humble happiness is principally affected by the griev-
ance of excessive taxes, which, gently pressing on the
wealthy, descend with accelerated weight on the meaner
and more indigent classes of society. An ingenious
philosopher has calculated the universal measure of
the public impositions by the degrees of freedom and
servitude ; and ventures to assert that, according to
an invariable law of nature, it must always increase
with the former, and diminish in a just proportion to
the latter. But this reflection, which would tend to
°5 This definition of the sage Ulpian (Pandect. 1. xlviii. tit.
iv.) seems to have been adapted to the court of Caracalla
rather than to that of Alexander Severus.
^6 Arcadius Charisius is the oldest lawyer quoted in tlie
Pandects to justify the universal practice of torture in all cases
of treason ; but this maxim of tyranny, which is admitted by
Ammianus (1. xix. c. 12) with the most respectful terror, is en-
forced by several laws of the successors of Constantino.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 217
alleviate the miseries of despotism, is contradicted at
least by the history of the Roman empire ; which
accuses the same princes of despoiling the senate of its
authority and the provinces of their wealth. Without
abolishing all the various customs and duties on
merchandises, which are imperceptibly discharged by
the apparent choice of the purchaser, the policy of
Constantine and his successors preferred a simple and
direct mode of taxation, more congenial to the spirit
of an arbitrary government.
The name and use of the indictions ,^^ which serve
to ascertain the chronology of the middle ages, was
derived from the regular practice of the Roman
tributes.^^ The emperor subscribed with his own
hand, and in purple ink, the solemn edict, or indic-
tion, which was fixed up in the principal city of each
diocese during two months previous to the first day
of September. And, by a very easy connection of
ideas, the word indiction was transferred to the measure
of tribute which it prescribed, and to the annual term
which it allowed for the payment. This general
estimate of the supplies was proportioned to the real
and imaginary wants of the state ; but, as often as the
expense exceeded the revenue, or the revenue fell
short of the computation, an additional tax, under the
name of superindiction, was imposed on the people,
and the most valuable attribute of sovereignty was
communicated to the Praetorian praefects, who, on
some occasions, were permitted to provide for the
unforeseen and extraordinary exigencies of the public
97 The cycle of indictions, which may be traced as high as
the reign of Constantius, or perhaps of his father Constantine,
is still employed by the papal court : but the commencement
of the year has been very reasonably altered to the first of
January.
98 The first twenty-eight titles of the eleventh book of the
Theodosian Code are filled with the circumstantial regulations
on the important subject of tributes ; but they suppose a
clearer knowledge of fundamental principles than it is at
present in our power to attain.
218 THE DECLINE AND FALL
service. The execution of these laws (which it would
be tedious to pursue in their minute and intricate
detail) consisted of two distinct operations ; the re-
solving the general imposition into its constituent
parts, which were assessed on the provinces, the cities,
and the individuals of the Roman world, and the
collecting the separate contributions of the individuals,
the cities, and the provinces, till the accumulated sums
were poured into the Imperial treasuries. But, as the
account between the monarch and the subject was
perpetually open, and as the renewal of the demand
anticipated the perfect discharge of the preceding
obligation, the weighty machine of the finances was
moved by the same hands round the circle of its
yearly revolution. Whatever was honourable or im-
portant in the administration of the revenue was
committed to the wisdom of the praefects and their
provincial representatives ; the lucrative functions
were claimed by a crowd of subordinate officers, some
of whom depended on the treasurer, others on the
governor of the province ; and who, in the inevitable
conflicts of a perplexed jurisdiction, had frequent
opportunities of disputing with each other the spoils
of the people. The laborious offices, which could be
productive only of envy and reproach, of expense and
danger, were imposed on the Decurions, who formed
the corporations of the cities, and whom the severity
of the Imperial laws had condemned to sustain the
burthens of civil society. ^^ The whole landed property
of the empire (without excepting the patrimonial
estates of the monarch) was the object of ordinary
taxation ; and every new purchaser contracted the
obligations of the former proprietor. An accurate
census, or survey, was the only equitable mode of
89 The title concerning the Decurions (1. xii, tit. i.) is the
most ample in the whole Theodosian Code ; since it contains
not less than one hundred and ninety-two distinct laws to
ascertain the duties and privileges of that useful order of
citizens.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 219
ascertaining the proportion which every citizen should
be ohliared to contribute for the public service ; and
from the well-known period of the indictions there is
reason to believe that this difficult and expensive
operation was repeated at the regular distance of
fifteen years. The lands were measured by surveyors^
who were sent into the provinces ; their nature,
whether arable or pasture, or vineyards or woods, was
distinctly reported ; and an estimate was made of their
common value from the average produce of five years.
TTie numbers of slaves and of cattle constituted an
essential part of the report ; an oath was administered
to the proprietors, which bound them to disclose the
true state of their affairs ; and their attempts to pre-
varicate, or elude the intention of the legislator, were
severely watched, and punished as a capital crime
which included the double guilt of treason and sac-
rilege. A large portion of the tribute was paid in
money ; and of the current coin of the empire, gold
alone could be legally accepted. The remainder of
the taxes, according to the proportions determined by
the annual indiction, was furnished in a manner still
more direct, and still more oppressive. According to
the different nature of lands, their real produce, in
the various articles of wine or oil, corn or barley, wood
or iron, was transported by the labour or at the expense
of the provincials to the Imperial magazines, from
whence they were occasionally distributed, for the use
of the court, of the army, and of the two capitals,
Rome and Constantinople. The commissioners of the
revenue were so frequently obliged to make consider-
able purchases that they were strictly prohibited from
allowing any compensation or from receiving in money
the value of those supplies which were exacted in kind.
In the primitive simplicity of small communities, this
method may be well adapted to collect the almost
voluntary offerings of the people ; but it is at once
susceptible of the utmost latitude and of the utmost
strictness, which in a corrupt and absolute monarchy
m.ust introduce a perpetual contest between the power
220 THE DECLINE AND FALL
of oppression and the arts of fraud. ^'^ The agriculture
of the Roman provinces was insensibly ruined, and, in
the progress of despotism, which tends to disappoint
its own purpose, the emperors were obliged to derive
some merit from the forgiveness of debts, or the re-
mission of tributes, which their subjects were utterly
incapable of paying. According to the new division
of Italy, the fertile and happy province of Campania,
the scene of the early victories and of the delicious
retirements of the citizens of Rome, extended between
the sea and the Apennine from the Tiber to the Silarus.
Within sixty years after the death of Constantine, and
on the evidence of an actual survey, an exemption was
granted in favour of three hundred and thirty thousand
English acres of desert and uncultivated land ; which
amounted to one-eighth of the whole surface of the
province. As the footsteps of the Barbarians had not
yet been seen in Italy, the cause of this amazing
desolation, which is recorded in the laws, can be
ascribed only to the administration of the Roman
emperors.i^^
Either from design or from accident, the mode of
assessment seemed to unite the substance of a land-tax
witli the forms of a capitation. ^"-'^ The returns which
were sent of every province or district expressed the
100 Some precautions were taken to restrain the magistrates
from the abuse of their authority, either in the exaction or in
the purchase of corn : but those who had learning enough to
read the orations of Cicero against Verres (iii, de Frumento)
might instruct themselves in all the various acts of oppression,
with regard to the weight, the price, the quality, and the
carriage. The avarice of an unlettered governor would supply
the ignorance of precept or precedent.
101 Cod. Theod. 1. xi. tit. xxviii. leg. 2, published the 24th of
March, a.d. 395, by the emperor Honoriixs, only two months
after the death of his father Theodosius. He speaks of 528,042
Roman jugera, which I have reduced to the English measure.
The jugemm contained 28,800 square Roman feet.
102 Godefroy (Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 116) argues with
weight and learning on the subject of the capitation ; but,
while he explains the caput as a share or measure of property,
he too absolutely excludes the idea of a personal assessment.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 221
number of tributary subjects and the amount of the
public impositions. The latter of these sums was
divided by the former ; and the estimate^ that such a
province contained so many capita, or heads of tribute,
and that each head was rated at such a price,, was
universally received^ not only in the popular, but even
in the leg-al computation. The value of a tributary
head must have varied, according to many acciden-
tal, or at least fluctuating, circumstances ; but some
knowledge has been preserved of a very curious fact,
the more important, since it relates to one of the
richest provinces of the Roman empire, and which
now flourishes as the most splendid of the European
kingdoms. Tlie rapacious ministers of Constantius had
exhausted the wealth of Gaul, by exacting twenty-five
pieces of gold for the annual tribute of every head.
The humane policy of his successor reduced the capita-
tion to seven pieces. A moderate proportion between
these opposite extremes of extravagant oppression and
of transient indulgence may therefore be fixed at sixteen
pieces of gold, or about nine pounds sterling, the
common standard perhaps of the impositions of Gaul.^*'^
But this calculation, or rather indeed the facts from
103 In the calculation of any sum of money under Constan-
tine and his successors, we need only refer to the excellent
discourse of Mr. Greaves on the Denarius for the proof of the
following principles : i. That the ancient and modern Roman
pound, containing 5256 grains of Troy weight, is about one-
twelfth lighter than '^the English pound, which is composed of
5760 of the same grains. 2. That the pound of gold, which
had once been divided into forty-eight aurei, was at this time
coined into seventy-two smaller pieces of the same denomina-
tion. 3. That five of these aurei were the legal tender for a
pound of silver, and that consequently the pound of gold was
exchanged for fourteen pounds eight ounces of silver according
to the Roman, or about thirteen pounds according to the
English, weight. 4. That the English pound of silver is
coined into sixty-two shillings. From these elements we may
compute the Roman pound of gold, the usual method of
reckoning large sums, at forty pounds sterling ; and we may fix
the currency of the aureus at somev/hat more than eleven
shillings.
222 THE DECLINE AND FALL
whence it is deduced, cannot fail of suggestluj^ two
difficulties to a thinking mind, who will be at once
surprised by the equality and by the enormity of the
capitation. An attempt to explain them may perhaps
reflect some light on the interesting subject of the
finances of the declining empire.
L It is obvious that, as long as the immutable con-
stitution of human nature produces and maintains so
unequal a division of property, the most numerous
part of the community would be deprived of their sub-
sistence by the equal assessment of a tax from which
the sovereign would derive a very trifling revenue.
Such indeed might be the theory of the Roman capita-
tion ; but in the practice, this unjust equality was no
longer felt, as the tribute was collected on the principle
of a real, not of a personal, imposition. Several in-
digent citizens contributed to compose a single head,
or share of taxation ; while the wealthy provincial, in
proportion to his fortune, alone represented several of
those imaginary beings. In a poetical request, ad-
dressed to one of the last and most deserving of the
Roman princes who reigned in Gaul, Sidonius Apolli-
naris personifies his tribute under the figure of a triple
monster, the Geryon of the Grecian fables, and entreats
the new Herculesthat he would mostgraciously be pleased
to save his life by cutting off three of his heads. The
fortune of Sidonius far exceeded the customary wealth
of a poet ; but, if he had pursued the allusion, he must
have painted many of the Gallic nobles with the hundred
heads of the deadly Hydra spreading over the face of
the country and devouring the substance of an hundred
families. II. The difficulty of allowing an annual sum
of about nine pounds sterling, even for the average of
the capitation of Gaul, may be rendered more evident
by the comparison of the present state of the same
country, as it is now governed by the absolute monarch
of an industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people.
The taxes of France cannot be magnified, either by
fear or by flattery, beyond the annual amount of
eighteen millions sterling, which ought perhaps to be
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 223
shared among four and twenty millions of inhabitants.^^
Seven millions of these^ in the capacity of fathers or
brothers or husbands^ may discharge the obligations of
the remaining multitude of women and children ; yet
the equal proportion of each tributary subject will
scarcely rise above fifty shillings of our money^ instead
of a proportion almost four times as considerable,
which was regularly imposed on their Gallic ancestors.
The reason of this difference may be found, not so
much in the relative scarcity or plenty of gold and
silver, as in the different state of society in ancient
Gaul and in modern France. In a country where
personal freedom is the privilege of every subject, the
whole mass of taxes, whether they are levied on pro-
perty or on consumption, may be fairly divided among
the whole body of the nation. But the far greater
part of the lauds of ancient Gaul, as well as of the
other provinces of the Roman world, were cultivated
by slaves, or by peasants whose dependent condition
was a less rigid servitude. In such a state the poor
were maintained at the expense of the masters, who
enjoyed the fruits of their labour ; and, as the rolls
of tribute were filled only with the names of those
lO'i This assertion, however formidable it may seem, is
founded on the original registers of births, deaths, ;and
marriages, collected by public authority, and now deposited in
the Co7itr6le Giniral at Paris. The annual average of births
throughout the whole kingdom, taken in five years (from 1770
to 1774, both inclusive), is 479,649 boys and 449,269 girls, in all
928,918 children. The province of French Hainault alone fur-
nishes 9906 births : and we are assured, by an actual enumera-
tion of the people, annually repeated from the year 1773 to the
year 1776, that, upon an average, Hainault contains 257,097
inhabitants. By the rules of fair analogy, we might infer that
the ordinary proportion of annual births to the whole people, is
about I to 26 ; and that the kingdom of France contains
24,151,868 persons of both sexes and of every age. If we content
ourselves with the more moderate proportion of i to 25, the whole
population will amount to 23,222,950. From the diligent re-
searches of the French government (which are not unworthy of
our own imitation), we may hope to obtain a still greater degree
of certainty on this important subject.
224 THE DECLINE AND FALL
citizens who possessed the means of an honourable,
or at least of a decent, subsistence, the comparative
sraallness of their numbers explains and justifies the
high rate of their capitation. The truth of this asser-
tion may be illustrated by the following- example :
The ^dui, one of the most powerful and civilised
tribes or cities of Gaul, occupied an extent of territory
which now contains above five hundred thousand in-
habitants in the two ecclesiastical dioceses of Autun
and Nevers : ^^^ and with the probable accession of those
of Chalons and Macon, ^^ the population would amount
to eight hundred thousand souls. In the time of
Constantine, the territory of the iEdui afforded no
more than twenty-five thousand heads of capitation,
of whom seven thousand were discharged by that prince
from the intolerable weight of tribute. A just analogy
would seem to countenance the opinion of an ingenious
historian, that the free and tributary citizens did not
los The ancient jurisdiction of [Aug-ustodunum) Autun in Bur-
gundy, the capital of the ^dui, comprehended the adjacent terri-
tory of {Noviodunum) Nevers. The two dioceses of Autun and
Nevers are now composed, the former of 6io, and the latter of
i6o, parishes. The registers of births, taken during eleven years,
in 476 parishes of the same province of Burgundy, and multiplied
by the moderate proportion of 25 (see Messance, Recherches sur
la Population, p. 142), may authorise us to assign an average
nvimber of 656 persons for each parish, which being again
multiplied by the 770 parishes of the diocese of Nevers and
Autun will produce the sum of 505,120 persons for the extent of
country which was once possessed by the ^dui.
106 We might derive an additional supply of 301,750 inhabi-
tants from the dioceses of Chalons [Cabillomim] and of Macon
{Matisco) ; since they contain, the one 200, and the other 260,
parishes. This accession of territory might be justified by very
specious reasons, i, Chalons and Macon were undoubtedly
within the original jurisdiction of the ^dui. 2. In the Notitia
of Gaul, they are enumerated not as Civiiates, but merely
as Custra. 3. They do not appear to have been episcopal
seats before the fifth and sixth centuries. Yet there is a
passage in Eumenius (Panegyr. Vet. viii. 7) which very forcibly
deters me from extending the territory of the ^dui, in the
reign of Constaniine, along the beautiful banks of the navigable
Saone.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 226
surpass the number of half a million ; and if, in the
ordinary administration of government^ their annual
payments may be computed at about four millions and
a half of our money^ it would appear that, although
the share of each individual was four times as con-
siderable, a fourth part only of the modern taxes of
France was levied on the Imperial province of Gaul,
llie exactions of Constantius may be calculated at
seven millions sterling, which were reduced to two
millions by the humanity or the wisdom of Julian.
But this tax or capitation on the proprietors of land
would have suffered a rich and numerous class of free
citizens to escape. AMth the view of sharing that
species of wealth which is derived from art or labour, and
which exists in money or in merchandise, the emperors
imposed a distinct and personal tribute on the trading
part of their subjects. Some exemptions, very strictly
confined both in time and place, were allowed to the
proprietors who disposed of the produce of their own
estates. Some indulgence was granted to the pro-
fession of the liberal arts : but every other branch of
commercial industry was affected by the severity of the
law. The honourable merchant of Alexandria, who
imported the gems and spices of India for the use of
the western world ; the usurer, who derived from the
interest of money a silent and ignominious profit ; the
ingenious manufacturer, the diligent mechanic, and
even the most obscure retailer of a sequestered village,
were obliged to admit the officers of the revenue into
the partnership of their gain : and the sovereign of the
Roman empire, who tolerated the profession, consented
to share the infamous salary, of public prostitutes. As
this general tax upon industry was collected every
fourth year, it was styled the Lustra! Contrihution : and
the historian Zosimus laments that the approach of
the fatal period was announced by the tears and terrors
of the citizens, who were often compelled by the im-
pending scourge to embrace the most abhorred and
unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which their
property had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus
VOL. II. jj
226 THE DECLINE AND FALL
cannot indeed be justified from the charge of passion
and prejudice ; but, from the nature of this tribute_, it
seems reasonable to conclude that it was arbitrary in
the distribution, and extremely rigorous in the mode
of collecting. The secret wealth of commerce, and the
precarious profits of art or labour, are susce])tible only
of a discretionary valuation, which is seldom dis-
advantageous to the interest of the treasury ; and, as
the person of the ti'ader supplies the want of a visible
and permanent security, the payment of the imposition,
which, in the case of a land-tax, may be obtained by tht
seizure of property, can rarely be extorted by any
other means than those of corporal punishments. The
cruel treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state is
attested, and was perhaps mitigated, by a very humane
edict of Constantino, who, disclaiming the use of racks
and of scourges, allots a spacious and airy prison for
the place of their confinement.
These general taxes were imposed and levied by the
absolute authority of the monarch ; but the occasional
offerings of the coronary gold still retained the name
and semblance of j)opular consent. It was an ancient
custom that the allies of the republic, who ascribed
their safety or deliverance to the success of the Roman
arms ; and even the cities of Italy, who admired the
virtues of their victorious general ; adorned the pomp
of his triumph by their voluntary gifts of crowns of
gold, which, after the ceremony, were consecrated in
the temple of Jupiter, to remain a lasting monument
of his glory to future ages. The progress of zeal iiud
flattery soon multiplied the number, and increased the
size, of these popular donations ; and the triumph of
Cajsar was enriched with two thousand eiij-ht hundred
and twenty-two massy crowns, wliose weight amounted
to twenty thousand four hundred and fourteen pounds
of gold. This treasure was immediately melted down
by the prudent dictator, who was satisfied that it would
be more serviceable to his soldiers than to the gods :
his example was imitated by his successors ; and the
custom was introduced of exchanging these splendid
OF THE llOxMAN EMPIRE 227
oruameuts for the more acceptable present of the
current g-old coin of the empire, ^<^'' The spontaneous
offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty ;
and, instead of being confined to the occasion of a
triumph, it was supposed to be granted by the several
cities and provinces of the monarchy as often as the
emperor condescended to announce his accession, his
consulship, the birth of a son, the creation of a C»sar,
a victory over the Barbarians, or any other real or
imaginary event which graced the annals of his reign.
The peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was fixed
by custom at sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about
sixty-four thousand pounds sterling. The oppressed
subjects celebrated their own felicity, that their
sovereign should graciously consent to accept this
feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and
gratitude.^^
A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent,
are seldom qualified to form a just estimate of their
actual situation. The subjects of Constantine were
incapable of discerning the decline of genius and manly
virtue, which so far degraded them below the dignity
of their ancestors ; but they could feel and lament the
rage of tyranny, the relaxation of discipline, and the
increase of taxes. The impartial historian, who ac-
knowledtj-es the justice of their complaints, will observe
some favourable circumstances which tended to alleviate
the misery of their condition. The threatening tempest
of Barbarians, which so soon subverted the foundations
of Roman greatness, was still repelled, or suspended,
on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature
were cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society
i<^ The Tarragonese Spain presented the emperor Claudius
with a crown of gold of seven, and Gaul with another of nine,
hundred pounds' weight. I have followed the rational emenda-
tion of Lipsius.
108 Cod. Theod. 1. xii. tit. xiii. The senators were supposed
to be exempt from the Aurum Coronarium ; but the Ann.
Oblatio, which was required at their hands, was precisely of
the sam? nature.
228 THE DECLINE AND FALL
were enjoyed^ by the inhabitants of a considerable
portion of the globe. The forms, the pomp, and the
expense of the civil administration contributed to
restrain the irregular licence of the soldiers ; and,
although the laws were violated by power or perverted
by subtlety, the sage principles of the Roman juris-
prudence preserved a sense of order and equity, un-
known to the despotic governments of the east. The
rights of mankind might derive some protection from
religion and philosophy ; and the name of freedom,
which could no longer alarm, might sometimes ad-
monish, the successors of Augustus that they did not
reign over a nation of slaves or barbarians. i°®
103 The great Theodosius, in his judicious advice to his son
(Claudian in iv. Consulat. Honorii, 214, &c.), distinguishes the
station of a Roman prince from that of a Partnian monarch.
Virtue was necessary for the one ; birth might suffice for the
other.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 229
CHAPTER XVni
CHARACTER OF CONSTANTINE GOTHIC WAR DEATH OF
CONSTANTINE DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE AMONG HIS
THREE SONS PERSIAN WAR TRAGIC DEATHS OP
CONSTANTINE THE YOUNGER AND CONSTANS USUR-
PATION OF MAGNENTIUS CIVIL WAR VICTORY OF
CONSTANTIUS
The character of the prince who removed the seat of
empire and introduced such important changes into
the civil and religious constitution of his country has
fixed the attention, and divided the opinions, of man-
kind. By the grateful zeal of the Christians, the
deliverer of the church has been decorated with every
attribute of a hero, and even of a saint ; while the
discontent of the vanquished party has compared
Constantino to the most abhorred of those tyrants,
who, by their vice and weakness, dishonoured the
Imperial purple. The same passions have in some
degree been perpetuated to succeeding generations,
and the character of Constantine is considered, even
in the present age, as an object either of satire or of
panegyric. By the impartial union of those defects
which are confessed by his warmest admirers and of
those virtues which are acknowledged by his most
implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a just
portrait of that extraordinary man, which the truth
and candour of history should adopt without a blush.
But it would soon appear that the vain attempt to
blend such discordant colours, and to reconcile such
inconsistent qualities, must produce a figure monstrous
rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper
and distinct lights by a careful separation of the
different periods of the reign of Constantine.
The person, as well as the mind, of Constantine had
230 'J'HE DECLINE AXD FALL a.i>.
been enriched by nature with her choicest endowments.
J lis stature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his
deportment graceful ; his strength and activity were
displayed in every manly exercise, and from his earliest
youth to a very advanced season of life, he preserved
the vigour of his constitution by a strict adlierence to
the domestic virtues of chastity and temperance. He
delighted in the social intercourse of familiar conversa-
tion ; and, though he might sometimes indulge his dis-
position to raillery with less reserve than was required
by the severe dignity of his station, the courtesy and
liberality of his manners gained the hearts of all who
approached him. The sincerity of his friendship has
been suspected ; yet he showed, on some occasions,
that he was not incapable of a warm and lasting attach-
ment. The disad\'antage of an illiterate education
had not prevented him from forming a just estimate
of the value of learning ; and the arts and sciences
derived some encouragement from the munificent
protection of Constantine. In the despatch of business,
his diligence was indefatigable ; and the active powers
of his mind were almost continually exercised in read-
ing, writing, or meditating, in giving audience to
ambassadors, and in examining the complaints of his
subjects. Even those who censured the propriety of
his measures were compelled to acknowledge that he
])ossessed magnanimity to conceive, and patience to
execute, the most arduous designs, without being
checked either by the prejudices of education or by
the clamours of the multitude. In the field, he infused
liis own intrepid spirit into the troops, whom he con-
ducted with the talents of a consummate general ; and
to his abilities, rather than to his fortune, we may
ascribe the signal victories which he obtained over the
foreign and domestic foes of the republic. He loved
glory, as the reward, perhaps as the motive, of his
labours. The boundless ambition, which, from the
moment of his accepting the purple at York, appears
as the ruling passion of his soul, may be justified by
the dangers of his own situation, by the character of
323-337 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 231
his rivals, by the consciousness of superior merit, and
by the prospect that his success would enable him to
restore peace and order to the distracted empire. In
his civil wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had
engaged on his side the inclinations of the people, who
compared the imdissembled vices of those tyrants
with the spirit of wisdom and justice which seemed
to direct the general tenor of the administration of
Constantine.^
Had Constantine fallen on the banks of the Tiber,
or even in the plains of Hadrianople, such is the
character which, with a few exceptions, he might have
transmitted to posterity. But the conclusion of his
reign (according to the moderate and indeed tender
sentence of a writer of the same age) degraded him
from the rank which he had acquired among the most
deserving of the Roman princes. In the ' life of
Augustus, we behold the tyrant of the republic con-
verted, almost by imperceptible degrees, into the father
of his country and of human kind. In that of Con-
stantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had so long
inspired his subjects with love and his enemies with
terror, dearenerating into a cruel and dissolute monarch,
corrupted by his fortune, or raised by conquest above
the necessity of dissimulation. The general peace
which he maintained during the last fourteen years of
his reign was a period of apparent splendour rather
than of real prosperity ; and the old age of Constantine
was disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable vices
of rapaciousness and prodigality. The accumulated
treasures found in the palaces of Maxentius and
Liciuius were lavishly consumed ; the various innova-
tions introduced by the conqueror were attended with
an increasing expense ; the cost of his buildings, his
court, and his festivals, required an immediate and
1 The virtues of Constantine are collected for the most part
from Eutropius and the younger Victor, two sincere pagans,
who wTote after the extinction of his family. Even Zosimus
and the Emperor Julian acknowledge his personal courage and
military achievements.
232 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
plentiful supply ; and the oppression of the people was
the only fund which could support the magnificence of
the sovereign. His unworthy favourites, enriched by
the boundless liberality of their master, usurped with
impunity the privilege of rapine and corruption. A
secret but universal decay was felt in every part of the
public administration, and the emperor himself, though
he still retained the obedience, gradually lost the
esteem, of his subjects. The dress and manners, which,
towards the decline of life, he chose to affect, served
only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The
Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride of
Diocletian, assumed an air of softness and effeminacy
in the person of Constautine. He is represented with
false hair of various colours, laboriously arranged by
the skilful artists of the times ; a diadem of a new and
more expensive fashion ; a profusion of gems and
pearls, of collars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing
robe of silk, most curiously embroidered with flowers
of gold. In such apparel, scarcely to be excused by
the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a loss
to discover the wisdom of an aged monarch and the
simplicity of a Roman veteran.^ A mind thus relajced
by prosp.eritY-And indulgence was_iiicap?iblft of rising
to that magnanimityL-W-liich -disdains suspicion and
dares to forgive. The deaths of Maximian and Liciuius
may perhaps be justified by the maxims of policy, as
they are taught in the schools of tyrants ; but an im-
partial narrative of the executions, or rather murders,
which sullied the declining age of Constautine, will
suggest to our most candid thoughts the idea of a
prince who could sacrifice without reluctance the laws
of justice and the feelings of nature to the dictates
either of his passions or of his interest.
2 Julian, in the Caesars, attempts to ridicule his uncle. His
suspicious testimony is confirmed however by the learned
Spanheim, with the authority of medals. Eusebms (Orat. c.
S) alleges that Constantine dressed for the public, not for
himself. Were this admitted, the vainest coxcomb could
never want an excuse.
323-337 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE 233
The same fortune which so invariably followed the
standard of Constantine seemed to secure the hopes
and comforts of his domestic life. Those among Ids
predecessors who had enjoyed the longest and most
prosperous reigns,, Augustus^ Trajan, and Diocletian,
had been disappointed of posterity ; and the frequent
revolutions had never allowed sufficient time for any
Imperial family to grow up and multiply under the
shade of the purple. But the royalty of the Flavian
line, which had been first ennobled by the Gothic
Claudius, descended through several generations ; and
Constantine himself derived from his royal father
the hereditary honours which he transmitted to his
children. The emperor had been twice married.
Minervina, the obscure but lawful object of his youth-
ful attachment/ had ieft him only one son, who was
called Crispus. By Fausta, the daughter of Maximian,
he had three daughters, and three sons, known by
the kindred names of Constantine, Constantius, and
Constans. The unambitious brothers of the great
Constantine, Julius Constantius, Dalmatius, and
Hannibalianus,'* were permitted to enjoy the most
lionourable rank, and the most affluent fortune, that
could be consistent with a private station. The
youngest of the three lived without a name, and died
without posterity. His two elder brothers obtained in
marriage the daughters of wealtliy senators, and pro-
pagated new branches of the Imperial race. Gallus
and Julian afterwards became the most illustrious of
the children of Julius Constantius, the Patrician.
The two sons of Dalmatius, who had been decorated
with the vain title of censor^ were named Dalmatius
and Hannibalianus. The two sisters of the great
s Zosimus and Zonaras agree in representing Minervina as
the concubine of Constantine : but Ducange has very gallantly
rescued her character, by producing a decisive passage from
one of the panegyrics,
4 Ducange (Familise Byzantinae, p, 44) bestows on him,
after Zonaras, the name of Constantine ; a name somewhat
unlikely, as it was already occupied by the elder brother,
VOL. II. H 2
234 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
Constantine, Anastasia and Eutropia, were bestowed
on Optatus and Nepotianus, two senators of noble
birth and of consular dignity. His third sister, Cou-
stantia, was distinguished by her pre-eminence of
greatness and of misery. She remained the widow of
the vanquished Licinius ; and it was by her entreaties
that an innocent boy, the offspring of their marriage,
preserved for some time, his life, the title of Caesar,
and a precarious hope of the succession. Besides the
females and the allies of the Flavian house, ten or
twelve males, to whom the language of modern courts
would apply the title of princes of the blood, seemed,
according to the order of their birth, to be destined
either to inherit or to support the throne of Constan-
tine. But in less than thirty years, this numerous
and increasing family was reduced to the persons of
Constantius and Julian, who alone had survived a
series of crimes and calamities, such as the tragic poets
have deplored in the devoted lines of Pelops and of
Cadmus.
Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine, and the pre-
sumptive heir of the empire, is represented by impartial
historians as an amiable and accomplished youth. The
care of his education, or at least of his studies, was
entrusted to Lactantius, the most eloquent of the
Christians ; a prieceptor admirably qualified to form
the taste, and to excite the virtues, of his illustrious
disciple.^ At the age of seventeen, Crispus was in-
vested with the title of Caesar, and the administration
of the Gallic provinces, where the inroads of the
Germans gave him an early occasion of signalising his
military prowess. In the civil war which broke out
soon afterwards, the father and son divided their
powers ; and this history has already celebrated the
valour as well as conduct displayed by the latter in
forcing the straits of the Hellespont, so obstinately
defended by the superior fleet of Licinius. This
5 Jerom. in Chron. The poverty of Lactamius may be
applied either to the praise of the disinterestedjphilosopher or to
the shame of the unfeeling patron.
324 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 235
naval victory contributed to determine the event of
the war ; and the names of Constantine and of Crispus
were united in the joyful acclamations of their eastern
subjects : who loudly proclaimed that the world had
been subdued^ and was now governed, by an emperor
endowed with every virtue; and by his illustrious son,
a prince beloved of heaven, and the lively image of
his father's perfections. The public favour, which
seldom accompanies old age, diffused its lustre over
the youth of Crispus. He deserved the esteem, and
he engaged the affections, of the court, the army, and
the people. The experienced merit of a reigning
monarch is acknowledged by his subjects with reluc-
tance, and frequently denied with partial and discon-
tented murmurs; while, from the opening virtues of
his successor, they fondly conceive the roost unbounded
hopes of private as well as public felicity.
This dangerous popularity soon excited the attention
of Constantine, who, both as a father and as a king,
was impatient of an equal. Instead of attempting to
secure the allegiance of his son, by the generous ties
of confidence and gratitude, he resolved to prevent the
mischiefs which might be apprehended from dissatisfied
ambition. Crispus soon had reason to complain that,
while his infant brother Constantius was sent, with the
title of Csesar, to reign over his peculiar department of
the Gallic provinces, he, a prince of mature years, who
had performed such recent and signal services, instead
of being raised to the superior rank of Augustus, was
confined almost a prisoner to his father's court ; and
exposed, without power or defence, to every calumny
which the malice of his enemies could suggest. Under
such painful circumstances, the royal youth might not
always be able to compose his behaviour, or suppress
his discontent ; and we may be assured that he was
encompassed by a train of indiscreet or perfidious
followers, who assiduously studied to inflame, and who
were perhaps instructed to betray, the unguarded
warmth of his resentment. An edict of Constantine,
published about this time, manifestly indicates his real
236 THE DECLINE AND FALL A.i>.
or affected suspicions that a secret conspiracy had been
formed against his person and government. By all
the allurements of honours and rewards, he invites
informers of every degree to accuse without exception
his magistrates or ministers, his friends or his most
intimate favourites, protesting, with a solemn assevera-
tion, that he himself will listen to the charge, that he
himself will revenge his injuries ; and concluding with
a prayer, which discovers some apprehension of danger,
that the providence of the Supreme Being may still
continue to protect the safety of the emperor and of
the empire.
The informers, who complied with so liberal an
invitation, were sufficiently versed in the arts of coui-ts
to select the friends and adherents of Crispus as the
guilty persons ; nor is there any reason to distrust the
veracity of the emperor, who had promised an ample
measure of revenge and punishment. The policy of
Constantino maintained, however, the same appearances
of regard and confidence towards a son whom he began
to consider as his most irreconcilable enemy. Medals
were struck with the customary vows for the long and
auspicious reign of the young Caesar ; and as the people,
who was not admitted into the secrets of the palace,
still loved his virtues and respected his dignity, a poet
who solicits his recall from exile, adores with equal
devotion the majesty of the father and that of the
son.'' The time was now arrived for celebrating the
august ceremony of the twentieth year of the reign of
Constantino ; and the emperor, for that purpose, re-
moved his court from Nicomedia to Rome, where the
most splendid preparations had been made for his
reception. Every eye and every tongue affected to
express their sense of the general happiness, and the
veil of ceremony and dissimulation was drawn for a
while over the darkest designs of revenge and murder.
In the midst of the festival, the unfortunate Crispus
was apprehended by order of the emperor, who laid
6 His name was Porphyrius Optatianus.
325-826 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 237
aside the tenderness of a father, without assuming the
equity of a judge. The examination was short and
private ; and, as it was thought decent to conceal the
fate of the young prince from the eyes of the Roman
people, he was sent under a strong guard to Pola, in
Istria, where, soon afterwards, he was put to death,
either by the hand of the executioner or by the more
gentle operation of poison. The Csesar Licinius, a
youth of amiable manners, was involved in the ruin of
Crispus ; and the stern jealousy of Constantine was
unmoved by the prayers and tears of his favourite
sister, pleading for the life of a son, whose rank was his
only crime, and whose loss she did not long survive.
The story of these unhappy princes, the nature and
evidence of their guilt, the forms of their trial, and
the circumstances of their death, were buried in mys-
terious obscurity ; and the courtly bishop, who has
celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues and piety
of his hero, observes a prudent silence on the subject
of these tragic events.'^ Such haughty contempt for
the opinion of mankind, whilst it imprints an indelible
stain on the memory of Constantine, must remind us
of the very different behaviour of one of the greatest
monarchs of the present age. The Czar Peter, in the
full possession of despotic power, submitted to the
judgment of Russia, of Europe, and of posterity, the
reasons which had compelled him to subscribe to the
condemnation of a criminal, or at least of a degene-
rate, son.
The innocence of Crispus was so universally acknow-
ledged that the modern Greeks, who adore the memory
of their founder, are reduced to palliate the guilt of a
parricide, which the common feelings of human nature
forbade them to justify. They pretend that, as soon
as the afflicted father discovered the falsehood of the
accusation by which his credulity had been so fatally
7 Two hundred and fifty years afterwards, Evagrius (1. iii. c.
41) deduced from the silence of Eusebius a vain argument
against the reality of the fact.
238 THE DECLINE AND FALL ad.
misled, he published to the world his repentance and
remorse ; that he mourned forty days, during which
he abstained from the use of the bath and all the
ordinary comforts of life ; and that, for the lasting
instruction of posterity, he erected a golden statue of
Crispus, with this memorable inscription : To anr Son,
WHOM I UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED. ^ A tale SO moral and
so interesting would deserve to be supported by less
exceptionable authority ; but, if we consult the more
ancient and authentic writers, they will inform us that
the repentance of Constantino was manifested only in
acts of blood and revenge ; and that he atoned for the
murder of an innocent son, by the execution, perhaps,
of a guilty wife. They ascribe the misfortunes of
Crispus to the arts of his stepmother Fausta, whose
implacable hatred, or whose disappointed love, renewed
in the palace of Constantine the ancient tragedy of
Fiippolytus and of Phaedra.^ Like the daughter of
Minos, the daughter of Maximian accused her son-in-
law of an incestuous attempt on the chastity of his
father's wife ; and easily obtained, from the jealousy
of the emperor, a sentence of death against a young
prince whom she considered with reason as the most
formidable rival of her own children. But Helena,
the aged mother of Constantine, lamented and revenged
the untimely fate of her grandson Crispus ; nor was it
long before a real or pretended discovery was made,
that Fausta herself entertained a criminal connection
with a slave belonging to the Imperial stables. ^^ Her
8 In order to prove that the statue was erected by Constan-
tine, and afterwards concealed by the malice of the Arians.
Codinus very readily creates (p. 34) two witnesses, Hippolytus
and the younger Herodotus, to whose imaginary histories he
appeals with unblushing confidence.
8 Zosimus (1. ii. p. 103) may be considered as our
original. The ingenuity of the moderns, assisted by a few
hints from the ancients, has illustrated and improved his
obscure and imperfect narrative.
^^ Philostorgius, 1. ii. c. 4. Zosimus (1. ii. p. 104, 116) im-
putes to Constantine the death of two wives: of the innocent
Fausta, and of an adulteress who was the mother of his three
323-337 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 230
condemnation and punishment were the instant con-
sequences of the charg-e ; and the adulteress was suflro-
cated by the steam of a bath^ which^ for that purpose,
had been heated to an extraordinary degree. ^^ By
some it will perhaps be thought, that the remembrance
of a conjugal union of twenty years, and the honour
of their common offspring, the destined heirs of the
throne, might have softened the obdurate heart of
Constantine ; and persuaded him to suffer his wife,
however guilty she might appear, to expiate her
offences in a solitary prison. But it seems a super-
fluous labour to weigh the propriety, unless we could
ascertain the truth, of this singular event ; which is
attended with some circumstances of doubt and per-
plexity. Those who have attacked, and those who
have defended, the character of Constantine have
alike disregarded two very remarkable passages of
two orations pronounced under the succeeding reign.
The former celebrates the virtues, the beauty, and the
fortune of the empress Fausta, the daughter, wife,
sister, and mother of so many princes. ^^ The latter
asserts, in explicit terms, that the mother of the
younger Constantine, who was slain three years after
his father's death, survived to weep over the fate of
her son. Notwithstanding the positive testimony of
successors. According to Jerom, three or four years elapsed
between the death of Crispus and that of Fausta. The elder
Victor is prudently silent.
11 If Fausta was put to death, it is reasonable to believe that
the private apartments of the palace were the scene of her
execution. The orator Chrysostom indulges his fancy by ex-
posing the naked empress on a desert mountain, to be devoured
by wild beasts.
12 Julian. Orat. i. He seems to call her the mother
of Crispus. She might assume that title by adoption.
At least, she was not considered as his mortal enemy.
Julian compares the fortune of Fausta with that of Parysatis,
the Persian queen. A Roman would have more naturally
recollected the second Agrippina : —
Et moi, qui sur le trone ai suivi mes ancetres :
Moi, fille, femme, soeur et m^re de vos maitres.
240 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
several writers of the Pa^an as well as of the Christian
religion, there may still remain some reason to believe,
or at least to suspect, that Fausta escaped the blind
and suspicious cruelty of her husband. The deaths of
a son, and of a nephew, with the execution of a great
number of respectable and perhaps innocent friends,
who were involved in their fall, may be sufficient,
however, to justify the discontent of the Roman people,
and to explain the satirical verses affixed to the palace-
gate, comparing the splendid and bloody reigns of
Constantine and Nero.
By the death of Crispus, the inheritance of the
empire seemed to devolve on the three sons of Fausta,
who have been already mentioned under the names of
Constantine, of Constantius, and of Constans. These
young princes were successively invested with the title
of Caesar ; and the dates of their promotion may be
referred to the tenth, the twentieth, and the thirtieth
years of the reign of their father. This conduct,
though it tended to multiply the future masters of
the Roman world, might be excused by the partiality
of paternal affection ; but it is not easy to understand
the motives of the emperor, when he endangered the
safety both of his family and of his people, by the
unnecessary elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius
and Hannibalianus. The former was raised, by the
title of Caesar, to an equality with his cousins. In
favour of the latter, Constantine invented the new
and singular appellation of Xobilissimus ;^^ to which
he annexed the flattering distinction of a robe of
purple and gold. But of the whole series of Roman
princes in any age of the empire, Hannibalianus alone
was distinguished by the title of King ; a name which
the subjects of Tiberius would have detested, as the
profane and cruel insult of capricious tyranny. The
use of such a title, even as it appears under the reign
of Constantine, is a strange and unconnected fact,
13 Under the predecessors of Constantine, Nobilissimus was
a vague epithet rather than a legal and determined title.
323-837 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 241
which can scarcely he admitted on the joint authority
of imperial medals and contemporary writers.
The whole empire was deeply interested in the edu-
cation of these live youths, the acknowledged successors
of Constantine. The exercises of the body prepared
them for the fatigues of war and the duties of active
life. Those who occasionally mention the education
or talents of Constantius allow that he excelled in the
gymnastic arts of leaping and running ; that he was
a dexterous archer, a skilful horseman, and a master
of all the different weapons used in the service either
of the cavalry or of the infantry. The same assiduous
cultivation was bestowed, though not perhaps with
equal success, to improve the minds of the sons and
nephews of Constantine.^^ The most celebrated pro-
fessors of the Christian faith, of the Grecian philosophy,
and of the Roman jurisprudence were invited by the
liberality of the emperor, who reserved for himself the
important task of instructing the royal youths in the
science of government and the knowledge of mankind.
But the genius of Constantine himself had been fom:ied
by adversity and experience. In the free intercourse
of private life, and amidst the dangers of the court
of Galerius, he had learned to command his own
passions, to encounter those of his equals, and to de-
pend for his present safety and future greatness on
the prudence and firmness of his personal conduct.
His destined successors had the misfortune of being
born and educated in the Imperial purple. Incessantly
surrounded with a train of flatterers, they passed their
youth in the enjoyment of luxury and the expectation
of a throne ; nor would the dignity of their rank per-
mit them to descend from that elevated station from
whence the various characters of human nature appear
to wear a smooth and uniform aspect. The indulgence
of Constantine admitted them at a very tender age
to share the administration of the empire : and they
!■* Constantius studied with laudable diligence ; but the
dulness of his fancy prevented him from succeeding in the
art of poetry, or even of rhetoric.
242 THE DECLINE AND FALL
studied the art of reigning at the expense of the people
entrusted to their care. The younger Constantine
was appointed to hold his court in Gaul ; and his
brother Constautius exchanged that department, the
ancient patrimony of their father, for the more opulent,
but less martial, countries of the East. Italy, the
Western IlljTicum, and Africa were accustomed to
revere Constans, the third of his sons, as the represen-
tative of the great Constantine. He fixed Dalmatius
on the Gothic frontier, to which he annexed the
government of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. The
city of Caesarea was chosen for the residence of
Hannibalianus ; and the provinces of Pontus, Cappa-
docia, and the Lesser Armenia were destined to form
the extent of his new kingdom. For each of these
princes a suitable establishment was provided. A just
proportion of guards, of legions, and of auxiliaries was
allotted for their respective dignity and defence. The
ministers and generals who were placed about their
persons were such as Constantine could trust to assist,
and even to control, these youthful sovereigns in the
exercise of their delegated power. As they advanced
in years and experience, the limits of their authority
were insensibly enlarged : but the emperor always re-
served for himself the title of Augustus ; and, while
he showed the Ccesnrs to the armies and provinces, he
maintained every part of the empire in equal obedience
to its supreme head.^^ The tranquillity of the last
fourteen years of his reign was scarcely interrupted by
the contemptible insurrection of a camel-driver in the
island of Cyprus/^ or by the active part which the policy
of Constantine engaged him to assume in the wars of
the Goths and Sarmatians.
15 Eusebius, with a design of exalting the authority and glory
of Constantine, affirms that he divided the Roman empire as
a private citizen might have divided his patrimony. His
distribution of the provinces may be collected from Eutropius,
the two Victors, and the Valesian fragment.
18 Calocerus, the obscure leader of this rebellion, or rather
tumult, was apprehended and burnt alive in the market-place
of Tarsus, by the vigilance of Dalmatius.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 243
Among: the different branches of the human race,
the Sarmatians form a very remarkable shade ; as they
seem to unite the manners of the Asiatic barbarians
with the figure and complexion of the ancient inhabi-
tants of Europe. According to the various accidents
of peace and war, of alliance or conquest, the Sarmatians
were sometimes confined to the banks of the Tanais ;
and they sometimes spread themselves over the immense
plains which lie between the Vistula and the Volga.
The care of their numerous flocks and herds, the
pursuit of game, and the exercise of war, or rather of
rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the Sarmatians.
The moveable camps or cities, the ordinary residence
of their wives and children, consisted only of large
waggons, drawn by oxen and covered in the form of
tents. The military strength of the nation was com-
posed of cavalry ; and the custom of their warriors, to
lead in their hand one or two spare horses, enabled
them to advance and to retreat with a rapid diligence
which surprised the security, and eluded the pursuit,
of a distant enemy. Their poverty of iron prompted
their rude industry to invent a sort of cuirass, which
was capable of resisting a sword or javelin, though it
was formed only of horses' hoofs, cut into thin and
polished slices, carefully laid over each other in the
manner of scales or feathers, and strongly sewed upon
an under-garment of coarse linen. ^" The offensive
arms of the Sarmatians were short daggers, long lances,
and a weighty bow with a quiver of arrows, lliey
were reduced to the necessity of employing fish bones
for the points of their weapons ; but the custom of
dipping them in a venomous liquor that poisoned the
wounds which they inflicted is alone suflScient to prove
the most savage manners ; since a people impressed
with a sense of humanity would have abhorred so cruel
a practice, and a nation skilled in the arts of war
17 Pausanias, 1. i. p. 50, edit. Kuhn. That inquisitive
traveller had carefully examined a Sarmatian cuirass, which
was preserved in the temple of ^Esculapius at Athens.
244 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
would have disdained so impotent a resource.^ When-
ever these Barbarians issued from their deserts in
quest of prey, their shaggy beards^ uncombed locks,
the furs with which they were covered from head to
foot, and their fierce countenances, which seemed
to express the innate cruelty of their minds, inspired
the more civilised provincials of Rome with horror and
dismay.
The tender Ovid, after a youth spent in the enjoy-
ment of fame and luxury, was condemned to an hope-
less exile on the frozen banks of the Danube, where he
was exposed, almost without defence, to the fury of
these monsters of the desert, with whose stern spirits
he feared that his gentle shade might hereafter be
confounded. In his pathetic, but sometimes unmanly,
lamentations,^^ he describes, in the most lively colours,
the dress and manners, the arms and inroads of the
Getae and Sarmatians, who were associated for the
purposes of destruction ; and from the accounts of
history there is some reason to believe that these
Sarmatians were the Jazygie, one of the most numerous
and warlike tribes of the nation. The allurements of
plenty engaged them to seek a permanent establish-
ment on the frontiers of the empire. Soon after the
reign of Augustus, they obliged the Dacians, who
subsisted by fishing on the banks of the river Theiss or
18 Aspicis et mitti sub adunco toxica ferro,
Et lelum causas mortis habere duas.
Ovid, ex Ponto, 1. iv. ep. 7, ver. 7.
See in the Recherches sur les Am^ricains, torn. ii. pp. 236-271,
a very curious dissertation on poisoned darts. The venom was
commonly extracted from the vegetable reign ; but that em-
ployed by the Scythians appears to have been drawn from the
viper and a mixture of human blood. The use of poisoned
arms, which has been spread over both worlds, never preserved
a savage tribe from the arms of a disciplined enemy.
19 The nine books of Poetical Epistles, which Ovid composed
during the seven first years of his melancholy exile, possess,
besides the merit of elegance, a double value. They exhibit
a picture of the human mind under very singular circumstances ;
and ihey contain many curious observations, which no Roman,
except Ovid, could have an opportunity of making.
I
331 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 245
Tibiscus, to retire into the hilly country, and to
abandon to the victorious Sarmatians the fertile plains
of the Upper Hung-ary, which are bounded by the
course of the Danube and the semi-circular inclosure
of the Carpathian mountains. 20 In this advantageous
position, they watched or suspended the moment of
attack, as they were provoked by injuries or appeased
by presents ; they gradually acquired the skill of using
more dangerous weapons ; and, although the Sar-
matians did not illustrate their name by any memor-
able exploits, they occasionally assisted their eastern
and western neighbours, the Goths and the Germans,
with a formidable body of cavalry. They lived under
the irregular aristocracy of their chieftians ; but, after
they had received into their bosom the fugitive Vandals,
who yielded to the pressure of the Gothic power, they
seem to have chosen a king from that nation, and from
the illustrious race of the Astingi, who had formerly
dwelt on the shores of the Northern ocean. ^^
This motive of enmity must have inflamed the
subjects of contention, which perpetually arise on
the confines of warlike and independent nations. The
Vandal princes were stimulated by fear and revenge ;
the Gothic kings aspired to extend their dominion
from the Euxine to the frontiers of Germany : and
the waters of the Maros, a small river which falls into
the Theiss, were stained with the blood of the con-
tending Barbarians. After some experience of the
superior strength and number of their adversaries, the
Sarmatians implored the protection of the Roman
20 The Sarmatians Jazygae were settled on the banks of the
Pathissus or Tibiscus, when Pliny, in the year 79, published his
Natural History, In the time of Strabo and Ovid, sixty or
seventy years before, they appear to have inhabited beyond the
Getas, along the coast of the Euxine.
21 This hypothesis of a Vandal king reigning over Sarmatian
subjects seems necessary to reconcile the Goth Jornandes with
the Greek and Latin historians of Constantine. It may be
observed that Isidore, who lived in Spain under the dominion
of the Goths, gives them for enemies, not the Vandals, but
the Sarmatians.
246 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
monarch, wlio beheld with pleasure the discord of the
nations, but who was justly alarmed by the progress of
the Gothic arms. As soon as Constantine had declared
himself in favour of the weaker party, the haughty
Araric, king of the Goths, instead of expecting the
attack of the legions, boldly passed the Danube, and
spread terror and devastation through the province of
Maesia. To oppose the inroad of this destroying host,
the aged emperor took the field in person ; but on
this occasion either his conduct or his fortune betrayed
the glory which he had acquired in so many foreign and
domestic wars. He had the mortification of seeing his
troops fly before an inconsiderable detachment of the
Barbarians, who pursued them to the edge of their
fortified camp and obliged him to consult his safety by
a precipitate and ignominious retreat. The event of
a second and more successful action retrieved the
honour of the Roman name ; and the powers of art
and discipline prevailed, after an obstinate contest,
over the efforts of irregular valour. The broken
army of the Goths abandoned the field of battle, the
wasted province, and the passage of the Danube : and,
although the eldest of the sons of Constantine was
permitted to supply the place of his father, the merit
of the victory, which diffused universal joy, was
ascribed to the auspicious counsels of the emperor
himself.
He contributed at least to improve this advantage,
by his negotiations with the free and warlike people of
Chersonesus,22 whose capital, situate on the western
coast of the Tauric or Crimaean peninsula, still retained
22 I may stand in need of some apology for having used,
■without scruple, the authority of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
in all that relates to the wars and negotiations of the
Chersonites. I am aware that he was a Greek of the tenth
century, and that his accounts of ancient history are frequently
confused and fabulous. But on this occasion his narrative is,
for the most part, consistent and probable ; nor is there much
difficulty in conceiving that an emperor might have access
to some secret archives, which had escaped the diligence of
meaner historians.
332-334 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 247
some vestiges of a Grecian colony, and was governed
by a perpetual magistrate, assisted by a council of
senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City.
The Chersonites were animated against the Goths by
the memory of the wars which, in the preceding
century, they had maintained with unequal forces
against the invaders of their country. They were
connected with the Romans by the mutual benefits of
commerce ; as they were supplied from the provinces
of Asia with corn and manufactures, which they
purchased with their only productions, salt, wax, and
hides. Obedient to the requisition of Constautine,
they prepared, under the conduct of their magistrate
Diogenes, a considerable army, of which the principal
strength consisted in crossbows and military chariots.
The speedy march and intrepid attack of the Cher-
sonites, by diverting the attention of the Goths, assisted
the operations of the imperial generals. The Goths,
vanquished on every side, were driven into the moun-
tains, where, in the course of a severe campaign, above
an hundred thousand were computed to have perished
by cold and hunger. Peace was at length granted to
their humble supplications ; the eldest son of Araric
was accepted as the most valuable hostage ; and Con-
stantine endeavoured to convince their chiefs, by a
liberal distribution of honours and rewards, how far
the friendship of the Romans was preferable to their
enmity. In the expressions of his gratitude towards
the faithful Chersonites, the emperor was still more
magnificent. The pride of the nation was gratified by
the splendid and almost royal decorations bestowed
on their magistrate and his successors. A perpetual
exemption from all duties was stipulated for their
vessels which traded to the ports of the Black Sea. A
regular subsidy was promised, of iron, corn, oil, and
of every supply which could be useful either in peace
or war. But it was thought that the Sarmatiaus were
sufficiently rewarded by their deliverance from impend-
ing ruin ; and the emperor, perhaps with too strict
an economy, deducted some part of the expenses of
248 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the war from the customary gratifications which were
allowed to that turbulent nation.
Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Samatians
soon forgot, with the levity of Barbarians, the services
which they had so lately received and the dangers
which still threatened their safety. Ilieir inroads on
the territory of the empire provoked the indignation
of Constantine to leave them to their fate, and he no
longer opposed the ambition of Geberic, a renowned
warrior, who had recently ascended the Gothic throne.
Wisumar, the Vandal king, whilst alone and unassisted
he defended his dominions with undaunted courage, was
vanquished and slain in a decisive battle, which swept
away the flower of the Sarmatian youth. The re-
mainder of the nation embraced the desperate ex-
pedient of arming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters
and herdsmen, by whose tumultuary aid they revenged
their defeat and expelled the invader from their
confines. But they soon discovered that they had
exchanged a foreign for a domestic enemy, more
dangerous and more implacable. Enraged by their
former servitude, elated by their present glory, the
slaves, under the name of Limigantes, claimed and
usurped the possession of the country which they had
saved. Their masters, unable to withstand the un-
governed fury of the populace, preferred the hardships
of exile to the tyranny of their servants. Some of the
fugitive Sarmatians solicited a less ignominious de-
pendence, under the hostile standard of the Goths.
A more numerous band retired beyond the Carpathian
mountains, among the Quadi, their German allies,
and were easily admitted to share a superfluous waste
of uncultivated land. But the far greater part of the
distressed nation turned their eyes towards the fruitful
provinces of Rome. Imploring the protection and
forgiveness of the emperor, they solemnly promised,
as subjects in peace and as soldiers in war, the most
inviolable fidelity to the empire which should graciously
receive them into its bosom. According to the maxims
337 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 249
adopted by Probus and his successors, the offers of this
Barbarian colony were eagerly accepted ; and a com-
petent portion of lands, in the provinces of Pannonia,
Thrace, Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately as-
signed for the habitation and subsistence of three
hundred thousand Sarmatians.
By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accept-
ing the homage of a suppliant nation, Constantine
asserted the majesty of the Roman empire ; and the
ambassadors of ^Ethiopia, Persia and the most remote
countries of India congratulated the peace and pros-
perity of his government.^ If he reckoned, among
the favours of fortune, the death of his eldest son, of
his nephew, and perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an
uninterrupted flow of private as well as public felicity,
till the thirtieth year of his reign ; a period which
none of his predecessors, since Augustus, had been
permitted to celebrate. Constantine survived that
solemn festival about ten months ; and, at the mature
age of sixty-four, after a short illness, he ended his
memorable life at the palace of Aquyrion, in the
suburbs of Nicomedia, whither he had retired for the
benefit of the air, and with the hope of recruiting his
exhausted strength by the use of the warm baths.
The excessive demonstrations of grief, or at least
of mourning, surpassed whatever had been practised
on any former occasion. Notwithstanding the claims
of the senate and people of ancient Rome, the corpse
of the deceased emperor, according to his last request,
was transported to the city which was destined to
preserve the name and memory of its founder. The
body of Constantine, adorned with the vain symbols
23 Eusebius (in Vit. Const. 1. iv. c. 50) remarks three circum-
stances relative to these Indians. i. They came from the
shores of the eastern ocean ; a description which might be
applied to the coast of China or Coromandel. 2. They pre-
sented shining gems, and unknown animals. 3. They protested
their kings had erected statues to represent the supreme
majesty of Constantine.
250 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
of greatness, the purple and diadem, was deposited on
a g-olden bed in one or the apartments of the palace,
which for that purpose had been splendidly furnished
and illuminated. The forms of the court were strictly
maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the
principal officers of the state, the army, and the house-
hold, approaching: the person of their so^^ereign with
bended .knees and a composed countenance, offered
their respectful homage as seriously as if he had been
still alive. From motives of policy, this theatrical
representation was for some time continued ; nor
could flattery neglect the opportunity of remarking
that Constantino a] one, by the peculiar indulgence of
heaven, had reigned after his death. ^^
But this reign could subsist only in empty pageantry ;
and it was soon discovered that the will of the most
absolute monarch is seldom obeyed, when his subjects
have no longer anything to hope from his favour, or
to dread from his resentment. The same ministers
and generals who bowed with such reverential awe
}>efor6 the inanimate corpse of their deceased sovereign
were engaged in secret consultations to exclude his
two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the
share which he had assigned them in the succession of
the empire. We are too imperfectly acquainted with
the court of Constantine to form any judgment of the
real motives which influenced the leaders of the con-
spiracy ; unless we should suppose that they were
actuated by a spirit of jealousy and revenge against
the praefect Ablavius, a proud favourite, who had long
directed the counsels and abused the confidence of the
late emperor. Tlie arguments by which they solicited
the concurrence of the soldiers and people are of a
more obvious nature : and they might with decency,
as well as truth, insist on the superior rank of the
24 Constantine had prepared for himself a stately tomb in the
church of the Holy Apostles. The best, and indeed almost the
only, account of the sickness, death, and funeral of Constan-
tine, is contained in the fourth book of his Life, by Eusebius.
337 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 2.57
children of Constantine, the danger of multiplying- the
number of sovereigns, and the impending mischiefs
which threatened the republic, from the discord of so
many rival princes, who were not connected by the
tender sympathy of fraternal affection. The intrigue
was conducted with zeal and secrecy till a loud and
unanimous declaration was procured from the troops
that they would suffer none except the sons of their
lamented monarch to reign over the Roman empire.
The younger Dalmatius, who was united with his
collateral relations by the ties of friendship and
interest, is allowed to have inherited a considerable
share of the abilities of the great Constantine ; but,
on this occasion, he does not appear to have concerted
any measures for supporting-, by arms, the just claims
which himself and his ro}al brother derived from the
liberality of their uncle. Astonished and overwhelmed
hy the tide of popular fury, they seem to have re-
mained, without the power of flight or of resistance,
in the hands of their implacable enemies. Their fate
was suspended till the arrival of Constantius, the
second, and perhaps the most favoured, of the sons of
Constantine.
The voice of the dying emperor had recommended
the care of his funeral to the piety of Constantius ;
and that prince, by the vicinity of his eastern station,
could easily prevent the diligence of his brothers, who
rosided in their distant government of Italy and Gaul.
As soon as he had taken possession of the palace of
Constantinople, his first care was to remove the ap-
prehensions of his kinsmen by a solemn oath, which
he pledged for their security. His next employment
was to find some specious pretence which might
release his conscience from the obligation of an im-
prudent promise. The arts of fraud were made
subservient to the designs of cruelty ; and a manifest
forgery was attested by a person of the most sacred
character. From the hands of the bishop of Nicomedia,
Constantius received a fatal scroll atTirmed to be the
252 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
genuine testament of his father ; in which the emperor
expressed his suspicions that he had been poisoned by
his brother ; and conjured his sons to revenge his
death^ and to consult their own safety by the punish-
ment of the guilty. ^Fhatever reasons might have
been alleged by these unfortunate princes to defend
their life and honour against so incredible an accusa-
tionj they were silenced by the furious clamours of
the soldiers, who declared themselves at once their
enemies, their judges, and their executioners. The
spirit, and even the forms, of legal proceedings were
repeatedly violated in a promiscuous massacre ; which
involved the two uncles of Constantius, seven of his
cousins, of whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were
the most illustrious, the patrician Optatus, who had
married a sister of the late emperor, and the praefect
Ablavius, whose power and riches had inspired him
with some hopes of obtaining the purple. If it were
necessary to aggravate the horrors of this bloody scene,
we might add that Constantius himself had espoused
the daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had
bestowed his sister in marriage on his cousin Hanni-
balianus. These alliances, which the policy of Con-
stantine, regardless of the public "^^ prejudice, had
formed between the several branches of the Imperial
house, served only to convince mankind that these
princes were as cold to the endearments of conjugal
aflfection, as they were insensible to the ties of con-
sanguinity and the moving entreaties of youth and
innocence. Of so numerous a family Gallus and Julian
25 Conjugia sobrinarum diu ignorata, temporie addito percre-
buisse. Tac. Ann. xii. 6, and Lipsius ad loc. The repeal of
the ancient law, and the practice of five hundred years, were
insufficient to eradicate the prejudices of the Romans ; who
still considered the marriages of cousins-german as a species
of imperfect incest ; and Julian, whose mind was biassed by
superstition and resentment, stigmatises these unnatural alliances
between his own cousins with the opprobrious epithet of ydfiujp
re ov yd/JLWf. The jurisprudence of the canons has since re-
vived and enforced this prohibition, without being able to
introduce it either into the civil or the common law of Europe.
337 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 253
alone^ the two youngest children of Julius Constantius,
■were saved from the hands of the assassins^ till their
rage, satiated with slaughter, had in some measure
subsided. The emperor Constantius, who, in the
absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious to
guilt and reproach, discovered, on some future occa-
sions, a faint and transient remorse for those cruel-
ties, which the perfidious counsels of his ministers
and the irresistible violence of the troops had extorted
from his unexperienced youth. ^^
The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a
new division of the provinces ; which was ratified in a
personal interview of the three brothers. Constantine,
the eldest of the Csesars, obtained, with a certain pre-
eminence of rank, the possession of the new capital,
which bore his own name and that of his father.
Thrace and the countries of the east were allotted for
the patrimony of Constantius ; and Constans was ac-
knowledged as the lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa,
and the western Illyricum. The armies submitted to
their hereditary right ; and they condescended, after
some delay, to accept from the Roman Senate the title
of Augustus. When they first assumed the reins of
government, the'eldest of these princes was twenty-one,
the second twenty, and the third only seventeen, years
of age.
AVhile the martial nations of Europe followed the
standards of his brothers, Constantius, at the head of
the efi"eminate troops of Asia, was left to sustain the
weight of the Persian war. At the decease of Con-
stantine, the throne of the east was filled by Sapor,
son of Hormouz or Hormisdas, and grandson of Narses,
who, after the victory of Galerius, had humbly con-
2^ Julian charges his cousin Constantius with the whole
guilt of a massacre from which he himself so narrowly escaped.
His assertion is confirmed by Athanasius, who, for reasons of
a very different nature, was not less an enemy of Constantius
(torn. i. p. 856). Zosimus joins in the same accusation.
But the three abbreviators, Eutropius and the Victors, use-
very qualifying expressions; " sinente potius quam jubente ; "
" incertum quo suasore ; " " vi militum."
254 THE DECLINi^J AND FALL a.d.
fessed the superiority of the Roman power. Although
iSapor was in the thirtieth year of his long reign, he
was still in the vigour of youth, as the date of his
accession, by a very strange fatality, had preceded that
of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained pregnant
at the time of her husband's death ; and the uncertainty
of the sex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious
hopes of the princes of the house of Sassan. Tl:e
ap|)rehensious of civil war were at length removed, by
the positive assurance of the Magi that the widow of
Hormouz had conceived, and would safely produce, a
son. Obedient to the voice of superstition, the Persians
prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation.
A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was
exhibited in the midst of the palace ; the diadem was
placed on the spot which might be supposed to conceal
the future heir of Artaxerxes, and the prostrate Satraps
adored the majesty of their invisible and insensible
sovereign."-^ If any credit can be given to this mar-
vellous tale, which seems however to be countenanced
by the manners of the people and by the extraordinary
duration of his reign, we must admire not only the
fortune, but the genius, of Sapor. In the soft
sequestered education of a Persian harem, the royal
youth could discover the importance of exercising the
vigour of his mind and body ; and, by his personal
merit, deserved a throne, on which he had been seated
while he was yet unconscious of the duties and tempta-
tions of absolute power. His minority was exposed to
the almost inevitable calamities of domestic discord ; his
capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a power-
ful king of Yemen, or Arabia ; and the majesty of the
royal family was degraded by the captivity of a princess,
the sister of the deceased king. But, as soon as Sapor
attained the age of manhood, the presumptuous Thair,
his nation, and his country fell beneath the first effort
• 27 Agathias, who lived in the sixth century, is the author of
this story. He derived his information from some extracts of
the Persian Chronicles, obtained and translated by the inter-
preter Sergius, during his embassy at that court.
337 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 266
of the young warrior ; who used his victory with so
judicious a mixture of rigour aiid clemency that he
obtained from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs the
title oi Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation.
The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies
ascribe the virtues of a soldier and a statesman^ was
animated by the desire of revenging the disgrace of his
fathers, and of wresting from the hands of the Romans
the five provinces beyond the Tigris. The military
fame of Constantine^ and the real or apparent strength
of his government, suspended the attack ; and, while
the hostile conduct of Sapor provoked the resentment,
ills artful negotiations amused the patience, of the
imperial court. The death of Constautine was the
signal of war,-^ and the actual condition of the Syrian
and Armenian frontiers seemed to encourage the
Persians by the prospect of a rich spoil and an easy
conquest. The example of the massacres of the palace
diffused a spirit of licentiousness and sedition among
the troops of the east, who were no longer restrained
by their habits of obedience to a veteran commander.
By the prudence of Constantius, who, from the inter-
view with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately
hastened to the banks of the Euphrates, the legions
were gradually restored to a sense of duty and disci-
pline ; but the season of anarchy had permitted Sapor
to form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupy several
of the most important fortresses of Mesopotamia. ^^ In
Armenia, the renovs-ued Tiridates had long enjoyed the
peace and glory which he deserved by his valour and
fidelity to the cause of Rome. The firm alliance which
he maintained with Constantine was productive of
28 Sextus Rufus (c. 26), who on this occasion is no con-
temptible authority, affirms that the Persians sued in vain for
peace, and that Constantine was preparing to march against
them : yet the superior weight of the testimony of Eusebius
obliges us to admit the preliminaries, if not the ratification, of
the treaty.
29 From some successes gained possibly in the campaign of
this year Constantius won the title of Adiabenicus Maximus.
256 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
spiritual as well as of temporal benefits : by the con-
version of Tiridates, the character of a saint was applied
to that of a hero_, the Christian faith was preached and
established from the Euphrates to the shores of the
Caspian_, and Armenia was attached to the empire by
the double ties of policy and of religion. But, as many
of the Armenian nobles still refused to abandon the
plurality of their gods and of their wives, the public
tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction,
which insulted the feeble age of their sovereign, and
impatiently expected the hour of his death. He died
at length after a reign of fifty-six years, and the fortune
of the Armenian monarchy expired with Tiridates.
His lawful heir was driven into exile, the Christian
priests were either murdered or expelled from their
churches, the barbarous tribes of Albania were solicited
to descend from their mountains ; and two of the
most powerful governors, usurping the ensigns or the
powers of royalty, implored the assistance of Sapor,
and opened the gates of their cities to the Persian
garrisons. The Christian party, under the guidance
of the Archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate successor
of St. Gregory the Illuminator, had recourse to the
piety of Constantius. After the troubles had continued
about three years, Antiochus, one of the officers of the
household, executed with success the imperial com-
mission of restoring Chosroes, the son of Tiridates, to
the throne of his fathers, of distributing honours and
rewards among the faithful servants of the house of
Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which
was accepted by the greater part of the rebellious
Satraps. But the Romans derived more honour than
advantage from this revolution. Chosroes was a prince
of a puny stature, and a pusillanimous spirit. Unequal
to the fatigues of war, averse to the society of man-
kind, he withdrew from his capital to a retired palace,
which he built on the banks of the river Eleutherus,
and in the centre of a shady grove ; where he consumed
his vacant hours in the rural sports of hunting and
hawking. To secure this inglorious ease, he submitted
338 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 257
to the conditions of ])eace Avhich Sapor condescended
to impose ; the payment of an annual tribute, and the
restitution of the fertile province of Atropatene, which
the courag-e of Tiridates and the victorious ai-ms of
Galerius had annexed to the Armenian monarchy. ^^
During the long- period of the reign of Constantius,
the provinces of the east were afflicted by the calamities
of the Persian war. The irregular incursions of the
light troops alternately spread terror and devastation
beyond the Tigris and beyond the Euphrates, from
the gates of Ctesiphon to those of Antioch ; and this
active service was performed by the Arabs of the
desert, who were divided in their interest and affec-
tions ; some of their independent chiefs being enlisted
in the party of Sapor, whilst others had engaged their
doubtful fidelity to the emperor, ^i The more grave
and important operations of the war were conducted
with equal vigour ; and the armies of Rome and Persia
encountered each other in nine bloody fields, in two
of which Constantius himself commanded in person.
The event of the day was most commonly adverse to
the Romans, but in the battle of Singara their im-
prudent valour had almost achieved a signal and
decisive victory. The stationary troops of Singara
retired on the approach of Sapor, who passed tlte
Tigris over three bridges, and occupied near the village
of Hilleh an advantageous camp, which, by the labour
of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day
with a deep ditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable
30 The perfect agreement between the vague hints of the con-
temporary orator and the circumstantial narrative of the national
historian gives light to the former and weight to the latter.
For the credit of Moses it may be likewise observed that the
name of Antiochus is found a few years before in a civil office
of inferior dignity.
31 Ammianus (xiv. 4) gives a lively description of the wander-
ing and predatory life of the Saracens, who stretched from the
confines of Assyria to the cataracts of the Nile. It appears
from the adventures of Malchus, which Jerom has related in so
entertaining a manner, that the high road between Beroea and
Edessa was infested by these robbers.
VOL. II. I
258 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
host, when it was drawn out in order of battle, covered
the banks of the river, the adjacent heights, and the
whole extent of a plain of above twelve miles, which
separated the two armies. Both were alike impatient
to engage ; but the Barbarians, after a slight resistance,
fled in disorder ; unable to resist, or desirous to weary,
the strength of the heavy legions, who, fainting u-ith
heat and thirst, pursued them across thfe plain, and
cut in pieces a line of cavalry, clothed in complete
armour, which had been posted before the gates of the
camp to protect tlieir retreat. Constantius, who was
hurried along in the pursuit, attempted, without effect,
to restrain the ardour of his troops, by representing to
them the dangers of the approaching night and the
certainty of completing their success with the return
of day. As they depended much more on their own
valour than on the experience or the abilities of their
chief, they silenced by their clamours his timid remon-
strances ; and rushing with fury to the charge tilled
up the ditch, broke down the rampart, and dispersed
themselves through the tents, to recruit their exhausted
strength and to enjoy the rich harvest of their labours.
But the prudent Sapor had watched the moment of
victory. His army, of which the greater part, securely
posted on the heights, had been spectators of the action,
advanced in silence, and under the shadow of the night;
and his Persian archers, guided by the illumination of
the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed
and licentious crowd. The sincerity of history declares
that the Romans were vanquished with a dreadful
slaughter, and that the flying remnant of the legions
was exposed to the most intolerable hardships. Even
the tenderness of panegyric, confessing that the glory
of the emperor was sullied by the disobedience of his
soldiers, chooses to draw a veil over the circumstances
of this melancholy retreat. Yet one of those venal
orators, so jealous of the fame of Constantius, relates
with amazing coolness an act of such incredible cruelty,
as, in the judgment of posterity, must imprint a far
deeper stain on the honour of the imperial name. The
337-360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 259
son of !>apor, the heir of his crown, had been made a
captive in the Perbiau camp. The unhappy youth,
who might have excited the compassion of the most
savage enemy, was scourged, tortured, and publicly
executed by the inhuman Romans.
^Vhatever advantages might attend the arms of
Sapor in the field, though nine repeated victories
diffused among the nations the fame of his valour and
conduct, he could not hope to succeed in the execution
of his designs, while the fortified towns of Mesopotamia,
and, above all, the strong and ancient city of Nisibis,
remained in the possession of the Romans. In the
space of twelve years, Nisibis, which, since the time of
Lucullus, had been deservedly esteemed the bulwark
of the east, sustained three memorable sieges against
the power of Sapor, and the disappointed monarch,
after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, and an
hundred days, was thrice repulsed with loss and
ignominy. This large and populous city was situate
about two days' journey from the Tigris, in the midst
of a pleasant and fertile plain at the foot of Mount
Masius. A treble inclosure of brick walls was defended
by a deep ditch ; ^^ and the intrepid assistance of
Count Luciliauus and his garrison was seconded by
the desperate courage of the people. The citizens of
Nisibis were animated by the exhortations of their
bishop,^^ enured to arms by the presence of danger,
and convinced of the intentions of Sapor to plant a
Persian colony in their room and to lead them away
into distant and barbarous captivity. The event of
the two former sieges elated their confidence, and
32 Nisibis is now reduced to one hundred and fifty houses ;
the marshy lands produce rice, and the fertile meadows as far
as Mosul and the Tigris, are covered with the ruins of towns
and villages.
23 Tne miracles which Theodoret (1. ii. c. 30) ascribes to St.
James, Bishop of Edessa, were at least performed in a worthy
cause, the defence of his country. He appeared on the walls
under the figure of the Roman emperor, and sent an army of
gnats to sting the trunks of the elephants, and to discomfit the
host of the new Senacherib.
2C0 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
exasperated the haughty spirit of the Great King, who
advanced a third time towards Nisibis, at the head of
the united forces of Persia and India. The ordinary
machines invented to batter or undermine the walls
were rendered ineffectual by the superior skill of the
Romans ; and many days had vainly elar.sed, when
Sapor embraced a resolution, worthy of an eastern
monarch, who believed that tlie elements themselves
were subject to his power. At the stated season of the
melting of the snows in Armenia, the river JMygdonius,
which divides the plain and the city of Nisibis, forms,
like the Nile,^'' an inundation over the adjacent countrj-.
]Jy the labour of the Persians, the course of the river
was stopped below the town, and the waters were con-
fined on every side by solid mounds of earth. On this
artificial lake, a fleet of armed vessels, filled with
soldiers and with engines which discharged stones of
five hundred pounds weight, advanced in order of
battle, and engaged, almost upon a level, the troops
which defended the ramparts. The irresistible force
of the waters was alternately fatal to the contending
parties, till at length a portion of the walls, unable to
sustain the accumulated pressure, gave way at once,
and exposed an ample breach of one hundred and fifty
feet. The Persians were instantly driven to the assault,
and the fate of Nisibis depended on the event of the
day. The heavy armed cavalry, who led the van of a
deep column, were embarrassed in the mud, and great
numbers were drowned in the unseen holes which had
been filled by the rushing waters. The elephants,
made furious by their wounds, increased the disorder,
and trampled down thousands of the Persian archers.
Tlie Great King, who, from an exalted throne, beheld
the misfortunes of his arms, sounded, with relucUintj
3-1 Julian. Orat. i. p. 27. Though Niebuhr (torn. ii. p. 307)
allows a very considerable swell to the Mygdonius, over which
he saw a bridge of twelve arches ; it is difficult, however, tc
understand this parallel of a trifling rivulet with a mighty river.
There are many circumstances obscure, and almost unintel
ligible, in the description of these stupendous water works.
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 261
iudignation, the signal of the retreat, and suspended
for some hours the prosecution of the attack, liut the
vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the night ;
and the return of day discovered a new wail of six feet
in height, rising every moment to hll up the interval
of the breach. Notwithstanding the disappointment
of his hopes, and the loss of more than twenty thousand
men, Sapor still pressed the reduction of Nisibis, with
an obstinate firmness which could ha\e yielded only to
the necessity of defending the eastern provinces of
Persia against a formidable invasion of the Massagette.
Alarmed by this intelligence, he hastily relinquished
the siege, and marched with rapid diligence from the
banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxus. The danger
and difficulties of the Scythian war engaged him soon
afterwards to conclude, or at least to observe, a truce
with the Roman emperor, which was equally grateful
to both princes ; as Constantius himself, after the
deaths of his two brothers, was involved, by the revolu-
tions of the westj in a civil contest, which required
and seemed to exceed the most vigorous exertion of
his undivided strength.
After the partition of the emj)ire three years had
scarcely elapsed, before the sons of Constantine seemed
impatient to convince mankind that they were incap-
able of contenting themselves with the dominions which
they were unqualified to erovern. The eldest of those
princes soon complained that he was defrauded of his
just proportion of the spoils of their murdered kins-
men ; and, though he might yield to the superior
guilt and merit of Constantius, he exacted from
Constans the cession of the African provinces, as an
equivalent for the rich countries of Macedonia and
Greece, which his brother had acquired by the death
of Dalmatius, The want of sincerity which Constantine
experienced in a tedious and fruitless negotiation ex-
asperated the fierceness of his temper ; and he eagerly
listened to those favourites who suggested to him that
his honour, as well as his interest, was concerned in
the prosecution of the quarrel. At the head of a
262 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
tumultuary band, suited for rapine rather than for
conquest, he suddenly broke into the dominions of
Constans, by the way of the Julian Alps, and the
country round Aquileia felt the first effects of hi«
resentment. The measures of Constans, who then
resided in Dacia, were directed with more prudence
and ability. On the news of his brother's invasion, he
despatched a select and disciplined body of his lllyrian
troops, proposing^ to follow them in person with the
remainder of his forces. But the conduct of his
lieutenants soon terminated the unnatural contest
By the artful appearances of flierht, Constantine was
betrayed into an ambuscade, which had been concealed
in a wood, where the rash youth, with a few attendants,
was surprised, surrounded, and slain. His body, after
it had been found in the obscure stream of the Alsa,
obtained the honours of an imperial sepulchre ; but his
provinces transferred their allegiance to the conqueror,
who, refusing- to admit his elder brother Constantius
to any share in these new acquisitions, maintained the
undisputed possession of more than two-thirds of the
B'.rnan empire.^*
The fate of Constans himself was delayed about ten
years longer, and the revenge of his brother's der.;h
was reserved for the more ignoble hand of a domestic
traitor. Tlie pernicious tendency of the system intro-
duced by Constantine was displayed in the feeble
administration of his sons ; who, by their vices and
weakness, soon lost the esteem and affections of their
people. The pride assumed by Constans, from the
unmerited success of his arms, was rendered more
contemptible by his want of abilities and application.
His fond partiality towards some German captives,
distinguished only by the charms of youth, was an
35 The causes and the events of this civil war are related with
much perplexity and contradiction. I have chiefly followed
Zonaras, and the younger Victor. The monody pronounced
on the death of Constantine, might have been very instructive ;
but prudence and false taste engaged the orator to involve him-
self in vague declamation.
350 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 263
object of scandal to the people ; ^^ and Magnentius, an
ambitious soldier, who was himself of barbarian extrac-
tion, was encouraged by the public discontent to assert
the honour of the Roman name.^'' The chosen bands
of Jovians and Herculians^ who acknowledged Mag-
nentius as their leader^ maintained the most respectable
and important station in the Imperial camp. The
friendship of Marcellinus, count of tlie sacred largesses,
supplied with a liberal hand the means of seduction.
Tlie soldiers ' were convinced, by the most specious
arguments, that the republic summoned them to break
the bonds of hereditary servitude and, by the choic'e of
an active and vigilant prince, to reward the same
virtues which had raised the ancestors of the de-
generate Constans from a private condition to the
throne of the world. As soon as the conspiracy was
ripe for execution, Marcellinus, under the pretence
of celebrating his son's birthday, gave a splendid enter-
tainment to the illustrious and honourable persons of
the court of Gaul, which then resided in the city of
Autun. The intemperance of the feast was artfully
protracted till a very late houi- of the night ; and the
unsuspecting guests were tempted to indulge them-
selves in a dangerous and guilty freedom, of conversa-
tion. On a sudden the doors were thrown open, and
Magnentius, who had retired for a. few moments,
returned into the apartment, invested with the diadem
and purple. The conspirators instantly saluted him
36 Quarum {gentium) obsides pretio quaesitos pueros venus-
tiores, quod ciiltius habuerat, libidine hujusmodi arsisse pro
certo habetur. Had not the depraved tastes of Constans been
publicly avowed, the elder Victor, who held a considerable
office in his brother's reign, would not have asserted it in such
positive terms.
37 Victor in Epitome. There is reason to believe that Mag-
nentius was born in one of those Barbarian Colonies which
Constantius Chlorus had established in Gaul, His behaviour
may remind us of the patriot Earl of Leicester, the famous
Simon de Montfort, who could persuade the good people of
England that he, a Frenchman by birth, had taken arms to
deliver them from foreisfn favourites.
264 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
with the titles of Augustus and Emperor. The surprise,
the terror, the intoxication, the ambitious hopes, and
the mutual ignorance of the rest of the assembly,
prompted them to join their voices to the general
acclamation. The guards hastened to take the oath
of fidelity; the gates of the town were shut; and,
before the dawn of day, Magnentius became master of
the troops and treasure of the palace and city of Autun.
By his secrecy and diligence he entertained some hopes
of surprising the person of Constans, who was pursuing
in the adjacent forest his favourite amusement cf
hunting, or perhaps some pleasures of a more private
and criminal nature. The rapid progress of fame
allowed him, however, an instant for flight, though
the desertion of his soldiers and subjects deprived him
of the power of resistance. Before he could reach a
seaport in Spain, where he intended to embark, he
was overtaken near Helena,^^ at the foot of the
Pyrenees, by a party of light cavalry, whose chief,
regardless of the sanctity of a temple, executed his
commission by the murder of the son of Constantine.
As soon as the death of Constans had decided this
easy but important revolution, the example of the
court of Autun was imitated by the provinces of the
west. The authority of Magnentius was acknowledged
through the whole extent of the tvro great praefectures
of Gaul and Italy ; and the usurper prepared, by every
act of oppression, to collect a treasure, which miglit
discharge the obligation of an immense donative ajid
supply the expenses of a civil war. The martial
countries of lllyricum, from the Danube to the ex-
tremity of Greece, had long obeyed the government
of Vetranio, an aged general, beloved for the simplicity
of his manners, and who had acquired some reputation
58 This ancient city had once flourished under the name of
Illiberis (Pomponius Mela, ii. 5). The munificence of Con-
stantine gave it new splendour, and his mother's name. Helena
(it is still called Elne) became the seat of a bishop, who long
afterwards transferred his residence to Perpignan, the capital
of modern Rousillon.
350 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 265
by his experience and services in war.^ Attached, by
habit, by duty, and by gratitude, to the house of
Coii>tantine, he immediately gave the strongest assur-
ance;^ to the only surviving son of his late master that
he would expose, with unshaken fidelity, his person
and his troops, to inflict a just revenge on the traitors
of Gaul. But the legions of Vetranio were seduced
rather than provoked by the example of rebellion ;
their leader soon betrayed a want of firmness, or a
want of sincerity ; and his ambition derived a specious
pretence from the approbation of the })rincess Con-
stantina. Tliat cruel and aspiring woman, who had
obtained from the great Constantino her father the
rank of Augusta, placed the diadem with her own
hands on the head of the Illyrian general ; and seemed
to expect from his victory the accomplishment of those
unbounded hopes of which she had been disappointed
by the death of her husband Hannibalianus. Perhaps
it was without the consent of Constantina that the new
em])eror formed a necessary, though dishonourable,
alliance with the usurper of the west, whose purple
was so recently stained with her brother's blood.
The intelligence of these important events, which so
deeply affected the honour and safety of the Imperial
house, recalled the arms of Constantius from the
inglorious prosecution of the Persian war. He re-
commended the care of the east to his lieutenants,
and afterwards to his cousin Gallus, whom he raised
fi'om a prison to a throne ; and marched towards
Europe, with a mind agitated by the conflict of hope
and fear, of grief and indignation. On his arrival at
Heraclea in Thrace, the emperor gave audience to the
ambassadors of Magnentius and Vetranio. The first
author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, who in some
measure had bestowed the purple on his new master,
39 Eutropius (x. lo) describes Vetranio with more temper,
and probably with more truth, than either of the two Victors.
Vetranio was born of obscure parents in the wildest parts of
Maesia ; and so much had his education been neglected that,
after his elevation, he studied the alphabet.
VOL. II. I 2
266 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
boldly accepted this dangerous commission ; and his
three colleagues were selected from the illustrious
personages of the state and army. These deputies
were instructed to soothe the resentment, and to
alarm the fears, of Constantius. Tliey were empowered
to offer him tlie friendship and alliance of the western
princes, to cement their union by a double marriag-e ;
of Constantius with the daughter of Magnentius, and
of Magnentius himself with the ambitious Constantina ;
and to acknowledge in the treaty the pre-eminence o:
rank, which might justly be claimed by the emperor
of the east. Should pride and mistaken piety urge
him to refuse these equitable conditions, the ambassa-
dors were ordered to expatiate on the inevitable ruin
which must attend his rashness, if he ventured to
provoke the sovereigns of the west to exert their
superior strength and to employ against him that
valour, those abilities, and those legions, to which the
house of Constantino had been indebted for so many
triumphs. Such propositions and such arguments
appeared to deserve the most serious attention ; the
answer of Constantius was deferred till the next day ;
and, as he had reflected on the importance of justify-
ing a civil war in the opinion of the people, he thus
addressed his council, who listened with real or
affected credulity: '* Last night," said he, ''after I
retired to rest, the shade of the great Constantine,
embracing the corpse of my murdered brother, rose
before my eyes ; his well-known voice awakened me
to revenge, forbade me to despair of the republic, and
assured me of the success and immortjil glory which
would crown the justice of my arms." The authority
of such a vision, or rather of the prince who alleged
it, silenced every doubt, and excluded all negotiation.
The ignominious terms of peace w^ere rejected with
disdain. One of the ambassadors of the tyrant was
dismissed with the haughty answer of Constantius ;
his colleagues, as unworthy of the privileges of the
law of nations, were put in irons ; and the contending
powers prepared to watre an implacable war.
350 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 267
Such was the conduct, and such perhaps was the
duty^ of the brother of Constans towards tlje perfidious
usurper of Gaul, The situation and character of
Vetranio admitted of milder measures ; and the policy
of the eastern eniperor was directed to disunite his
antagonists, and to separate the forces of lllyricum
from the cause of rebellion. It was an easy task to
deceive the frankness and simplicity of V^etranio, who,
fluctuating some time between the opposite views of
honour and interest, displayed to the world the in-
sincerity of his temper, and was insensibly engaged in
the snares of an artful negotiation. Constantius ac-
knowledged him as a legitimate ayd equal colleague in
the empire, on condition that he would renounce his
disgraceful alliance with Maguentius and appoint a
place of interview on the frontiers of their respective
provinces^ where they might pledge their friendship
by mutual vows of fidelity and regulate by couimon
consent the future operations of the civil war. In
consequence of this agreement, Vetranio advanced to
the city of Sardica,^*^ at the head of twenty thousand
horse and of a more numerous body of infantry ; a
power so far superior to the forces of Constantius that
the lllyrian emperor appeared to command the life
and fortunes of his rival, who, depending on the
success of his private negotiations, had seduced the
troops, and undermined the throne, of Vetranio. The
chiefs, who had secretly embraced the party of
Constantius, prepared in his favour a public spectacle,
calculated to discover and inflame the passions of the
multitude. The united armies were commanded to
assemble in a large plain near the city. In the centre,
according to the rules of ancient discipline, a military
tribunal, or rather scafl^old, was erected, from whence
the emperors were accustomed, on solemn and im-
portant occasions, to harangue the troops. The well-
■^ The position of Sardica, near the modern city of Sophia,
appears better suited to this interview than the situation of either
Naissus or Sirmium, where it is placed by Jerom, Socrates, and
Sozomen.
268 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
ordered ranks of Romans and Barbarians, with drawn
gwords or with erected spears, the squadrons of cavalry
and the cohorts of infantry, distinguished by the
variety of their arms and ensigns, formed an immense
circle round the tribunal ; and the attentive silence
which they preserved was sometimes interrupted by
loud bursts of clamour or of applause. In the presence
of this formidable assembly, the two emperors were
called upon to explain the situation of public affairs :
the precedency of rank was yielded to the royal birth
of Constantius ; and, though he was indifferently skilled
in the arts of rhetoric, he acquitted himself, under
these difficult circumstances, with firmness, dexterity,
and eloquence. The first part of his oration seemed
to be pointed only against the tyrant of Gaul ; but,
while he tragically lamented the cruel murder of
Constans, he insinuated that none, except a brother,
could claim a right to the succession of his brother.
He displayed, with some complacency, the glories of
his Imperial race ; and recalled to the memory of the
troops the valour, the triumphs, the liberality of the
great Constantine, to whose sons they had engaged
their allegiance by an oath of fidelity, which the in-
gratitude of his most favoured servants had tempted
them to violate. The officers, who surrounded the
tribunal and were instructed to act their parts in this
extraordinary scene, confessed the irresistible power
of reason and eloquence by saluting the emperor
Constantius as their lawful sovereign. The contagion
of loyalty and repentance was communicated from
rank to rank ; till the plain of Sardica resounded with
the universal acclamation of ^* Away with these upstart
usurpers ! Long life and victory to the son of Con-
stantine ! Under his banners alone we will fight and
conquer." The shout of thousands, their menacing
gestures, the fierce clashing of their arms, astonished
and subdued the courage of Vetranio, who stood,
amidst the defection of his followers, in anxious and
silent suspense. Instead of embracing the last refuge
of generous despair, he tamely submitted to his fate ;
351 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 269
and takino- the diadem from bis head^ in view of both
armies, fell prostrate at the feet of bis conqueror.
Constantius used bis victory with prudence and
moderation ; and raising from the ground the aged
suppliant, whom be affected to style by the endearing
name of Father, he gave him his hand to descend
from the throne. The city of Prusa was assigned for
the exile or retirement of the abdicated monarch, who
lived six years in the enjoyment of ease and affluence.
He often expressed his grateful sense of the goodness
of Constantius, and, with a very amiable simplicity,
advised bis benefactor to resign the sceptre of the
world, and to seek for content (where alone it could
be found) in the peaceful obscurity of a private
condition. ■**
The behaviour of Constantius on this memorable
occasion was celebrated with some appearance of
justice ; and his courtiers compared the studied
orations which a Pericles or a Demosthenes addressed
to the populace of Athens with the victorious eloquence
which had persuaded an armed multitude to desert
and depose the object of their partial choice. The
approaching contest with Ma-rnentius was of a more
serious and bloody kind. The tyrant advanced by
rapid marches to encounter Constantius, at the head
of a numerous army, composed of Gauls and Spaniards,
of Franks and Saxons ; of those provincials who
supplied the strength of the legions, and of those
barbarians who were dreaded as the most formidable
enemies of the republic. The fertile plains ^^ of the
*i The younger Victor assigns to his exile the emphatical
appellation of " Voluptarium otium." Socrates (1. ii. c. 28) is
the voucher for the correspondence with the emperor, which
would seem to prove that Vetranio was, indeed, prope ad
stultitiam simplicissimus.
42 Busbequius (p. 112) traversed the Lower Hungary and
Sclavonia at a time when they were reduced almost to a desert
by the reciprocal hostilities of the Turks and Christians. Yet
he mentions with admiration the unconquerable fertility of the
soil ; and observes that the height of the grass was sufficient to
conceal a loaded waggon from his sight.
270 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
Lower Pannonia, between the Drave, the Save^ and
the Danube, presented a spacious theatre ; and the
operations of the civil war were protracted during- the
summer months by the skill or timidity of the com-
batants. Constantius had declared his intention of
deciding the quarrel in the fields of Cibalis, a name
that would animate his troops by the remembrance of
the victory which, on the same auspicious ground, had
been obtained by the arms of his father Constantine.
Yet, by the impregnable fortifications with which the
emperor encompassed his camp, he appeared to decline,
rather than to invite, a general engagement. It was
the object of Magnentius to tempt or to compel his
adversary to relinquish this advantageous position ;
and he employed, with that view, the various marches,
evolutions, and stratagems, which the knowledge of
the art of war could suggest to an experienced officer.
He carried by assault the important town of Siscia ;
made an attack on the city of Sirmium, which lay in
the rear of the Imperial camp ; attempted to force a
passage over the Save into the eastern provinces of
Illyricum ; and cut in pieces a numerous detachment,
which he had allured into the narrow passes of Adarne.
During the greater part of the summer, the tyrant of
Gaul showed himself master of the field. The troops
of Constantius were harassed and dispirited ; his
reputation declined in the eye of the world ; and his
pride condescended to solicit a treaty of peace, which
would have resigned to the assassin of Coustans the
sovereignty of the provinces beyond the Alps. These
offers were enforced by the eloquence of Philip the
Imperial ambassador ; and the council as well as the
army of Magnentius were disposed to accept them.
But the haughty usurper, careless of tlie remonstrances
of his friends, gave orders that Philip should be de-
tained as a captive, or at least as a hostage ; while
he despatched an officer to reproach Constantius with
the weakness of his reign, and to insult him by the
promise of a pardon, if he would instantly abdicate
the purple. '^ That he should confide in the justice of
35] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 271
his cause and tlie protection of an avenging- Deity/' was
tlie only answer wliich lionour permitted tlie^emperor
to return. Rut he was so sensible of the difficulties
of his situation that he no longer dared to retaliate the
indignity which had been offered to his representative.
TTie negotiation of Philip was not^ however, ineffectual,
since he determined Sylvan us, the Frank, a general
of merit and reputation, to desert with a considerable
body of cavali-y, a few days before the battle of Mursa.
The cit}' of Mursa, or Essek, celebrated in modern
times for a bridge of boats five miles in length over
the river Drave and the adjacent morasses, "^^ jj^g heen
always considered as a place of importance in the wars
of Hungary. Magnentius, directing his march towards
Mursa, set fire to the gates, and, by a sudden assault,
had almost scaled the wjiils of tiie town. The vigilance
of the garrison extinguished the flames ; the ap])roach
of Constantius left him no time to continue the opera-
tions of the siege ; and the emperor soon removed the
only obstacle that could embarrass his motions, by
forcing a body of troops which had taken post in an
adjoining amphitheatre. The field of battle round
Mursa was a naked and level plain ; on this ground
the army of Constantius formed, with the Drave on
their right ; while their left, either from the nature
of their disposition or from the superiority of their
cavalry, extended far beyond the right' flank of
Magnentius. The troops on both sides remained
under arms in anxious expectation during the greatest
];art of the morning ; and the son of Constantine,
after animating his soldiers by an eloquent speech,
retired into a church at some distance from the field
of battle, and committed to his generals the conduct
of this decisive day."*^ They deserved his confidence by
*^ This remarkable bridge, which is flanked with towers, and
supported on large wooden piles, was constructed, A.D. 1566,
by Sultan Soliman, to facilitate the march of his armies into
Hungary.
-" The emperor passed the day in prayer with Valens, the
Arian bishop of Mursa, who gained his confidence by announcing
272 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the valour and military skill which thev exerted. They
wisely be^au the action upon the left ; and, advancing
their whole wing- of cavalry in an oblique line, they
suddenly wheeled it on the right flank of the enemy,
which was unprepared to resist the impetuosity of
their charge. But the Romans of the West soon
rallied, by the habits of discipline ; and the Barbarians
of Germany supported the renown of their national
bravery. The engagement soon became general ; was
maintained with various and singular turns of fortune ;
and scarcely ended with the darkness of the night.
The signal victory which Constantius obtained is
attributed to the arms of his cavalry. His cuirassiers
are described as so many massy statues of steel, glitter-
ing with their scaly armour, and breaking with their
ponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic legions.
As soon as the legions gave way, the lighter and more
active squadrons of the second line rode sword in
hand into the intervals, and completed the disorder.
In the meanwhile, the huge bodies of the Germans
were exposed almost naked to the dexterity of the
oriental archers ; and whole troops of those Barbarians
were urged by anguish and despair to precipitate them-
selves into the broad and rapid stream of the Drave.
The number of the slain was computed at fifty-four
thousand men, and the slaughter of the conquerors
w;is more considerable than that of the vanquished ; ^^
a circumstance which proves the obstinacy of the
the success of the battle. M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Em-
pereurs, torn. iv. p. mo) very properly remarks the silence of
Julian with regard to the personal prowess of Constantius in the
battle of Mursa. The silence of flattery is sometimes equal to
the most positive and authentic evidence.
45 According to Zonaras, Constantius, out of 80,000 men, lost
30,000, and Magnentius lost 24,000 out of 36,000. The other
articles of this account seem probable and authentic, but the
numbers of the tyrant's army must have been mistaken, either
by the author or his transcribers. Magnentius had collected
the whole force of the West, Romans and Barbarians, into one
formidable body, which cannot fairly be estimated at less than
loo.ooomen.
352 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 273
contest, and justifies the observation of an ancient
writer that the forces of the empire were consumed
in the fatal battle of Mursa^ by the loss of a veteran
army, sufficient to defend the frontiers or to add new
triumphs to the glory of Rome. Notwithstanding the
invectives of a servile orator, there is not the least
reason to believe that the tyrant deserted his own
standard in the beginning of the engagement. He
seems to have displayed the virtues of a general and
of a soldier till the day was irrecoverably lost^ and his
camp in the possession of the enemy. Magiientius
then consulted his safety, and, throwing away the
Imperial ornaments, escaped with some difficulty from
the pursuit of the light horse, who incessantly followed
his rapid flight from the banks of the Drave to the foot
of the Julian Alps.
The approach of winter supplied the indolence of
Constantius with specious reasons for deferring the
prosecution of the war till the ensuing spring. Mag-
nentius had fixed his residence in the city of Aquileia.
and showed a seeming resolution to dispute the passage
of the mountains and morasses which fortified the con-
fines of the Venetian province. The surprisal of a
castle in the Alps by the secret march of the Imperi-
alists could scarcely have determined him to relinquish
the possession of Italy, if the inclinations of the people
had supported the cause of their tyrant. But the
memory of the cruelties exercised by his ministers,
after the unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had left a
deep impression of horror and resentment on the
minds of the Romans. That rash youth, the son of
the princess Eutropia, and the nephew of Constantino,
had seen with indignation the sceptre of the West
usurped by a perfidious barbarian. Arming a desperate
troop of slaves and gladiators, he overpowered the
feeble guard of the domestic tranquillity of Rome,
received the homage of the senate, and, assuming the
title of Augustus, precariously reigned during a tumult
of twenty-eight days. The march of some regular
forces put an end to his ambitious hopes : the rebellion
274 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
was extinguished in the blood of Nepotian, of his
mother Eutropia, and of his adherents ; and the pro-
scription was extended to all wlio had contracted a
fatal alliance with the name and family of Constantine.
But_, as soon as Constantius^ after the battle of Mursa,
became master of the sea-coast of Dalmatia^ a band of
noble exiles, who had ventured to equip a fleet in
some harbour of the Hadriatic, sought protection and
revenge in his victorious camp. By tlieir secret in-
telligence with their countrymen, Rome and the Italian
cities were persuaded to display the banners of Con-
stantius on their walls. The grateful veterans, enriched
by the liberality of the father, signalised their gratitude
and loyalty to the son. The cavalry, the legions, and
the auxiliaries of Italy renewed their oath of allegiance
to Constantius ; and the usurper, alarmed by the
general desertion, was compelled, with the remains of
his faithful troops, to retire beyond the Alps into the
provinces of Gaul. The detachments, however, which
were ordered either to press or to intercept the flight
of Magnentius, conducted themselves with the usual
imprudence of success ; and allowed him, in the plains
of Pavia, an opportunity of turning on his pursuers
and of gratifying his despair bytlie carnage of a useless
victory.
The pride of Magnentius was reduced, by repeated
misfortunes, to sue, and to sue in vain, for peace. He
first despatched a senator, in whose abilities he con-
fided, and afterwards several bishops, whose holy char-
acter might obtain a more fav.jurable audience, with
the offer of resigning the purple, and the promise of
devoting the remainder of his life to the service of the
emperor. But Constantius, though he granted fair
terms of pardon and reconciliation to all wlio abandoned
the standard of rebellion, avowed his inflexible resolu-
tion to inflict a just punishment on the crimes of an
assassin, whom he prepared to overwhelm on every
side by the effort of his victorious arms. An Imperial
fleet acquired the easy possession of Africa and Spain,
confirmed the wavering faith of the Moorish nations,
353 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 276
and landed a considerable force, which passed the
Pj^renees, and advanced towards Lyons, the last and
fatal station of Mag-nentius. The temper of the tyrant,
which was never inclined to clemency, was urged by
distress to exercise every act of oppression which could
extort an immediate supply from the cities of Gaul.*^
Their patience was at lengih exhausted ; and Treves,
the seat of Praetorian government, gave the signal of
revolt by shutting her gates against Decentius, who
had been raised by his brother to the rank either of
('aesar or of Augustus.*'^ From Treves, Decentius was
obliged to retire to Sens, where he was soon surrounded
by an army of Germans, whom the pernicious arts of
Constantius had introduced into the civil dissensions
of Rome. In the meantime the Imperial troops forced
the passages of the Cottian Alps, and in the bloody
combat of Mount Seleucus irrevocably fixed the title
of Rebels on the party of Magnentius. He was unable
to bring dnother army into the field ; the fidelity of
his guards was corrupted: and, when he appeared in
public to animate them by his exhortations, he was
saluted with an unanimous shout of " Long live the
emperor Constantius ! " The tyrant, who perceived
that they were preparing to deserve pardon and rewards
by the sacrifice of the most obnoxious criminal, pre-
vented their design by falling on his sword ; a death
more easy and more honourable than he could hope to
obtain from the hands of an enemy, whose revenge
would have been coloured with the specious pretence
of justice and fraternal piety. The example of suicide
'*" Julian, who (Oral, i, p. 40) inveighs against the cruel effects
of the tyrant's despair, mentions (Orat. i. p. 34) the oppressive
edicts which were dictated by his necessities, or by his avarice.
His subjects were compelled to purchase the Imperial demesnes ;
a doubtful and dangerous species of property, which, in case
of a revolution, might be imputed to them as a treasonable
usurpation.
47 The medals of Magnentius celebrate the victories of the two
August!, and of the Caesar. The Cassar was another brother,
named Desiderius.
276 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
was imitated by Decentius, who strangled himself ou
the uews of his brother's death. The author of the
conspiracy, Marcellinus, had long since disappeareil in
the battle of Mursa/^ and the public tranquillity wa^
confirmed by the execution of the surviving leaders of
a guilty and unsuccessful faction. A severe inquisition
was extended over all who, either from choice or from
compulsion, had been involved in the cause of rebellion.
Paul, surnamed Catena, from his superior skill in the
judicial exercise of tyranny, was sent to explore the
latent remains of the conspiracy in the remote province
of Britain. The honest indignation expressed by
Martin, vice-prajfect of the island, was interpreted as
an evidence of his own guilt ; and the governor was
urged to the necessity of turning against his breast
the sword with which he had been provoked to wound
the Imperial minister. The most innocent subjects of
the VV^est were exposed to exile and confiscation, to
death and torture ; and, as the timid are always cruel,
the mind of Constantius was inaccessible to mercy.
**> Julian (Orat. i. pp. 58, 59) seems at a loss to determine
whether he inflicted on himself the punishment of his crimes,
whether he was drowned in the Drave, or whether he was carried
by the aveng'ng demons from the field of battle to his destined
place of eternal tortures.
SfiS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 277
CHAPTER XIX
CONSTANTIUS SOLK EMPEROR ELEVATION AND DEATH OF
GALI.US DANGER AND ELEVATION OF JULIAN SA U-
MATIAN AND PERSIAN WARS — VICTORIES OF JULIAN
IN GAUL
The divided provinces of the empire were again united
by the victory of Constantius ; but, as that feeble
prince was destitute of personal merit, either in peace
or war ; as he feared his generals and distrusted his
ministers ; the triumph of his arms served only to
establish the reign of the eunuch.^ over the Roman
world. Those unhappy beings, the ancient production
of oriental jealousy and despotism, were introduced
into Greece and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic
luxury. Tlieir progress was rapid ; and the eunuchs,
who, in the time of Augustus, had been abhorred, as
the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, were
gradually admitted into the families of matrons, of
senators, and of the emperors themselves. Restrained
by the severe edicts of Domitian and Nerva, cherished
by the pride of Diocletian, reduced to an humble
station by the prudence of Constantine,^ they multi-
plied in the palaces of his degenerate sons, and in-
sensibly acquired the knowledge, and at length the
direction, of the secret councils of Constantius. The
aversion and contempt which mankind has so uniformly
entertained for that imperfect species appears to have
degraded their character, and to have rendered them
almost as incapable as they were supposed to be of
^ There is a passage in the Augustan History, p. 137, in which
Lampridius, whilst he praises Alexander Severus and Constantine
for restraining the t>Tanny of the eunuchs, deplores the mischiefs
which they occasioned in other reigns.
278 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
conceiving any generous sentiment or of performing
any worthy action. ^ But the eunuchs were skilled ui
the arts of flattery and intrigue ; and they alternately
governed the mind of Constantius by his fears, his
indolence, and his vanity.^ Whilst he viewed in a
deceitful mirror the fair appearance of public pros-
perity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the
complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate
immense treasures by the sale of justice and of honours ;
to disgrace the most important dignities by the pro-
motion of those who had purchased at their hands the
powers of oppression,^ and to gratify their reseutrnent
against the few independent spirits who arrogantly
refused to solicit the protection of slaves. Of tliese
slaves the most distinguished was the chamberlain
Eusebius, who ruled the monarch and the palace with
such absolute sway that Constantius, according to the
sarcasm of an impartial historian, possessed some credit
with his haughty favourite. By his artful suggestions,
the emperor was persuaded to subscribe the condemna-
tion of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime
2 Xenophon (C\ropasdia, 1. viii. p. 540) has stated the
specious reasons which engaged Cyrus to entrust his person
to the guard of eunuchs. He had observed in animals that,
although the practice of castration might tame their ungovernable
fierceness, it did not diminish their strength or spirit ; and he
persuaded himself that those who were separated from the rest
of human kind would be more firmly attached to the person of
their benefactor. But a long experience has contradicted the
judgment of Cyrus. Some particular instances may occur of
eunuchs distinguished by their fidelity, their valour, and their
abilities ; but, if we examine the general history of Persia,
India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs
has uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty.
3 The whole tenor of his impartial history serves to justify
the invectives of Mamertinus, of Libanius, and of Julian himself,
who have insulted the vices of the court of Constantius.
* Aurelius Victor censures the negligence of his sovereign in
choosing the governors of the provinces and the generals of the
army, and concludes his history with a very bold observation,
as it is much more dangerous under a feeble reign to attack the
ministers than the master himself.
344 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 279
to the long' list of unnatural murders which pollute
the honour of the house of Constantiue.
When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and
Julian, were saved from the fury of the soldiers, the
former was about twelve, and the hitter about six, years
of age ; and, as the eldest was thought to be of a sickly
constitution, they obtained with the less difficulty a
precarious and dependent life from the atfected pity of
Constantius, who was sensible that the execution of
these helpless orphans would have been esteemed by
all mankind an act of the most deliberate cruelty.^
Different cities of Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for
the places of their exile and education ; but, as soon as
their growing years excited the jealousy of the emperor,
he judged it more prudent to secure those unhappy
youths in the strong castle of Macellum, near Caesarea.
The treatment which they experienced during a six
years' confinement was partly such as they could hope
from a careful guardian, and partly such as they might
dread from a suspicious tyrant.^ Their prison was an
ancient palace, the residence of the kings of Cappa-
docia ; the situation was pleasant, the buildings stately,
the inclosure spacious. They pursued their studies,
and practised their exercises, under the tuition of the
most skilful masters ; and the numerous household,
appointed to attend, or rather to guard, the nepliews
of Constantine, was not unworthy of the dignity of
their birth. But they could not disguise to themselves
that they were deprived of fortune, of freedom, and of
safety ; secluded from the society of all whom they
' Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 90) reproaches the apostate
with his ingratitude towards Mark, bishop of Arethusa, who had
contributed to save his life ; and we learn, though from a less
respectable authority, that Julian v/as concealed in the sanctuary
of a church.
6 The most authentic account of the education and adventures
of Julian is contained in the epistle or manifesto which he him-
self addressed to the senate and people of Athens. Libanius
(Orat. Parentalis), on the side of the Pagans, and Socrates (L iii.
c. i), on that of the Christians, have preserved several interest-
ing circumstances.
280 THE DECLINE AND FALL ad
could trust or esteem ; and condemned to pass their
melancholy hours in the company of slaves, devoted to
the commands of a tyrant, who had already injured
them beyond the hope of reconciliation. At length,
however, the emergencies of the state compelled the
emperor, or rather his eunuchs, to invest Gallus, in
the twenty-fifth year of his age, with the title of Caesar,
and to cement this political connection by his marriage
with the princess Constantina. After a formal inter-
view, in which the two princes mutually engaged their
faith never to undertake anything to the prejudice of
each other, they repaired without delay to their re-
spective stations. Constantius continued his march
towards the West, and Gallus fixed his residence at
Antioch, from whence, with a delegated authority, he
administered the five great dioceses of the eastern
prfefecture.*^ In this fortunate change, the new Cjvsar
was not unmindful of his brother Julian, who obtained
the honours of his rank, the appearances of liberty,
and the restitution of an ample patrimony.^
The writers the most indulgent to the memory of
Gallus, and even Julian himself, though he wished to
cast a veil over the frailties of his brother, are obliged
to confess that the Caesar was incapable of reigning.
Transported from a prison to a throne, he possessed
neither genius nor application, nor docility to com-
pensate for the want of knowledge and experience. A
temper naturally morose and violent, instead of being
corrected, was soured, by solitude and adversity ; the
"^ For the promotion of Gallus, see Idatius, Zosimus, and the
two Victors. According to Philostorgius (1. iv. c. i), Theophilus,
an Arian bishop, was the witness, and, as it were, thegaurantee,
of this solemn engagement. He supported that character with
generous firmness ; but M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs,
tom. iv. p. 1 120) thinks it very improbable that an heretic
should have possessed such virtue.
8 Julian was at first permitted to pursue his studies at Con-
stantinople, but the reputation which he acquired soon excited
the jealousy of Constantius ; and the young prince was advised
to withdraw himself to the less conspicuous scenes of Bithynia
and Ionia.
351-354 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 281
remembrance of what he had endured disposed him
to retaliation rather than to sympatliy ; and the nn-
governed sallies of his rage were often fatal to those
who approached his person or were subject to his
power.^ Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a
woman, but as one of the infernal furies tormented
with an insatiate thirst of human blood. ^*^ Instead of
employing her influence to insinuate the mild counsels
of prudence and humanity, she exasperated the fierce
passions of her husband ; and, as she retained the
vanity, though she had renounced the gentleness, of
her sex, a pearl necklace was esteemed an equivalent
price for the murder of an innocent and virtuous
nobleman. ^^ The cruelty of Gallus was sometimes
displayed in the undissembled violence of popular or
military executions ; and was sometimes disguised by
the abuse of law, and the forms of judicial proceedings.
The private houses of Antioch and the places of public
resort were besieged by spies and informers ; and the
Caesar himself, concealed in a plebeian habit, very
frequently condescended to assume that odious char-
acter. Every apartment of the palace was adorned
with the instruments of death and torture, and a
ifeneral consternation was diffused through the capital
of Syria. The Prince of the East, as if he had been
conscious how much he had to fear, and how little he
deserved to reign, selected for the objects of his re-
sentment the provincials, accused of some imaginary
treason, and his own courtiers, whom with more reason
8 I shall copy the words of Eutropius, who wrote his abridg-
ment about fifteen years after the death of Gallus, when there
was no longer any motive either to flatter or to depreciate his
character. " Multis incivilibus gestis Gallus Caesar . . . vir
natura ferox et ad tyrannidem pronior, si suo jure imperaie
licuisset."
^0 The sincerity of Ammianus would not suffer him to mis-
represent facts or characters, but his love of ambitious orna-
ments frequently betrayed him into an unnatural vehemence
of expression.
11 His name was Clematius of Alexandria, and his only crime
was a refusal to gratify the desires of his mother-in-law ; who
solicited his death, because she had been disappointed of his love.
282 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
he suspected of incensingj by their secret correspon-
dence, the timid and suspicious mind of Constantius.
But he forg-ot that he was depriving himself of his
only support, the affection of the people ; whilst he
furnished the malice of his enemies with the arms of
truth, and afforded the emperor the fairest pretence of
exacting the forfeit of his purple, and of his life.
As long as the civil war suspended the fate of the
Roman world, Constantius dissembled his knowledge
of the weak and cruel administration to which his
choice had subjected the East ; and the discovery of
some assassins, secretly despatched to Antioch by the
tyrant of Gaul, was employed to convince the public,
tiiat the emperor and the Cjesar were united by the
same interest and pursued by the same enemies. ^^
But, when the victory was decided in favour of Con-
stantius, his dependent colleague became less useful
and less formidable. Every circumstance of his conduct
was severely and suspiciously examined, and it was
privately resolved either to deprive Gallus of the
purple or at least to remove him from the indolent
luxury of Asia to the hardships and dangers of a
German war. The death of Theophilus, consular of
the province of Syria, who in a time of scarcity had
been massacred by the people of Antioch with the
connivance, and almost at the instigation, of Gallus,
was justly resented, not only as an act of wanton
cruelty, but as a dangerous insult on the supreme
majesty of Constantius. Two ministers of illustrious
rank, Domitian, the oriental praefect, and Montius,
qunpstor of the palace, were empowered by a special
commission to visit and reform the state of the East.
They were instructed to behave towards Gallus with
moderation and respect, and, by the gentlest arts of
persuasion, to engage him to comply with the invita-
tion of his brother and colleague. The rashness of
the praifect disappointed these prudent measures, and
12 The assassins had seduced a great number of legionaries ;
but their designs were discovered and revealed by an old woman
in whose cottage they lodged.
354 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 283
hastened his own ruin as well ag that of his enemy.
(>n his arrival at Antioch, Domitian passed disdainfully
before the ^ates of the palace, and, alleg-ing a slight
pretence of indisposition, continued several days in
sullen retirement to prepare an inflammatory memo-
rial, which he transmitted to the Imperial court.
Yielding at length to the pressing" solicitations of
Gallus, the praefect condescended to take his seat in
council ; but his first step was to signify a concise and
haughty mandate, importing that the Caesar should
immediately repair to Italy, and threatening that he
himself would punish his delay or hesitation by sus-
pending the usual allowance of his household. The
nephew and daughter of Constantine, who could ill
brook the insolence of a su])ject, expressed their re-
sentment by instantly delivering Domitian to the
custody of a guard. Tlie quarrel still admitted of
some terms of accommodation. They were rendered
impracticable by the imprudent behaviour of Montius,
a statesman whose art and experience were frequently
betraved by the levity of his disposition.^^ The quaestor
reproached Gallus in haughty language that a prince
who was scarcely authorised to remove a municipal
magistrate should presum.e to imprison a Praetorian
praefect ; convoked a meeting of the civil and military
officers ; and required them, in the name of their
sovereign, to defend the person and dignity of his
representatives. By this rash declaration of war, the
impatient temper of Gallus was provoked to embrace
the most despei-ate counsels. He ordered his guards
to stand to their arms, assembled the populace
of Antioch, and recommended to their zeal the care
of his safety and revenge. His commands were too
^' In the present text of Ammianus, we read, Asper quidem
sed ad lenitatem propensior ; which forms a sentence of con-
tradictory nonsense. With the aid of an old manuscript
Valesius has rectified the first of these corruptions, and we
perceive a ray of light in the substitution of the word wafer.
If we venture to change lenitatem into Ier>itctem, this alteration
of a single letter wfll render the whole passage clear and
consistent.
284 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
fatally obeyed. Tliey rudely seized the praefect and
the quaestor^ and, tying their legs together with ropes,
they dragged them through the streets of the city,
inflicted a thousand insults and a thousand wounds on
these unhappy victims, and at last precipitated their
mangled and lifeless bodies into the stream of the
Orontes.^*
After such a deed, whatever might have been the
designs of Gallus, it was only in a Held of battle that
he could assert his innocence with any hope of success.
But the mind of that prince was formed of an equal
mixture of violence and weakness. Instead of assum-
ing the title of Augustus, instead of employing in his
defence the troops and treasures of the East, he
suffered himself to be deceived by the affected tran-
quillity of Constantius, who, leaving him the vain
pageantry of a court, imperceptibly recalled the
veteran legions from the provinces of Asia. But, as
it still appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in his
capital, the slow and safer arts of dissimulation were
practised with success. The frequent and pressing
epistles of Constantius were filled with professions of
confidence and friendship ; exhorting the Caesar to
discharge tlie duties of his high station, to relieve his
colleague from a part of the public cares, and to assist
the \Vest by his presence, his counsels and his arms.
After so many reciprocal injuries, Gallus had reason
to fear and to distrust. But he had neglected the
opportunities of flight and of resistance ; he was
seduced by the flattering assurances of the tribune
Scudilo, who, under the semblance of a rough soldier,
disguised the most artful insinuation ; and he de-
pended on the credit of his wife Constantina, till the
unseasonable death of that princess completed the
14 Instead of being obliged to collect scattered and imperfect
hints from various sources, we now enter into the full stream of
the history of Ammianus, and need only refer to the seventh
and ninth chapters of his fourteenth book. Philostorgius, how-
ever (1. iii. c. 28), though partial to Gallus, should not be
eptirely overlooked.
354 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 286
ruin in wliich he had been involved by her impetuous
passions. ^^
After a long delay, the reluctant Ctesar set fonvards
on his journey to the Imperial court. From Aiitioch
to Hadrianople, he traversed the wide extent of his
dominions with a numerous and stately train ; and^
as he laboured to conceal his apprehensions from tlie
world, and perhaps from himself, he entertained the
people of Constantino})le with an exhibition of tlie
games of the circus. The progress of the journey
mioflit, however, have warned him of the impending
danger. In all the principal cities he was met by
ministers of confidence, commissioned to seize the
offices of government, to observe his motions, and to
prevent the hasty sallies of his despair. The persons
despatched to secure the provinces which he left
behind passed him with cold salutations or affected
disdain ; and the troops, whose station lay along the
public road, were studiously removed on his approach,
lest they might be tempted to offer their swords for
the service of a civil war.^** After Gallus had been
permitted to repose himself a few days at Hadrianople
he received a mandate, expressed in the most haughty
and absolute style, that his splendid retinue sliould
halt in that city, while the Caesar himself, with only
ten post-carriages, should hasten to the Imperial
residence at Milan. In this rapid journey, the pro-
found res])ect which was due to the brother and
colleague of Constantius was insensibly changed into
rude familiarity ; and Gallus, who discovered in tlie
countenances of the attendants that they already
IS She had preceded her huiband ; but died of a fever
on the road, at a httle place in Bithynia, called Coenum
Gallicanum.
''*^ The Thebstan legions, which were then quartered at
Hadrianople, sent a deputation to Gallus, with a tender of their
services. The Notitia (s. 6, 20, 38, edit. Labb. ) mentions
three several legions which bore the name of Thebaan. The
zeal of M. de \'oltaire, to destroy a despicable though cele-
brated legend, has tempted him on the slightest grounds to
deny the existence of a Thebaean legion in the Roman amies.
286 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
considered themselves as his guards, and might soon
be employed as his executioners^ began to accuse his
fatal rashness, and to recollect with terror and re-
morse the conduct by which he had provoked his fate.
The dissimulation whicli had hitherto been preserved,
was laid aside at Poetovio in Pannonia. He was
conducted to a palace in the suburbs, where the
general Barbatio, with a select band of soldiers, who
could neither be moved by pity nor corrupted by
rewards, expected the arrival of his illustrious victim.
In the close of the evening he was arrested, ignomini-
ously stripped of the ensigns of Caesar, and hurried
away to Pola in Istria, a sequestered prison which had
been so recently polluted with royal blood. The
horror vvhich he felt was soon increased by the ap-
pearance of his implacable enemy the eunuch Eusebius,
who, with the assistance of a notary and a tribui.?,
proceeded to interrogate liim concerning the adminis-
tration of the East. The Caesar sunk under the weii^ht
of shame and guilt, confessed all the criminal actions,
and all the treasonable designs, with which he was
charged ; and, by imputing tliem to the advice of his
wife, exasperated the indignation of Constantius, who
reviewed with partial prejudice the minutes of the
examination. The emperor was easily convinced that
his own safety was incompatible with the life of his
cousin : the sentence of death was signed, despatched,
and executed ; and the nephew of Constantine, with
his hands tied behind his back, was beheaded in prison
iike the vilest malefactor. ^^ Those who are inclined
to palliate the cruelties of Constantius assert that lie
soon relented and endeavoured to recall the bloody
mandate : but that the second messenger entrusted
with the reprieve was detained by the eunuchs, who
dreaded the unforgiving temper of Gallus, and were
17 Julian complains that his brother was put to death with-
out a trial ; attempts to justify, or at least to excuse, the cruel
revenji^e which he had inflicted on his enemies ; but seems at
last to acknowledge that he might justly iiave been deprived
of the purple.
i
354 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 287
desirous of reuniting to their empire the wealthy
provinces of the East.
Beside* the reigning emperor^ Julian alone survived,
of all the numerous posterity of Constantius Chloriis.
The misfortune of his royal birth involved him in the
disgrace of Gallus. From his retirement in the happy
country of Ionia, he was conveyed under a strong
guard to the court of Milan ; where he languished
above seven months, in the continual apprehension of
suifering the same ignominious death which was daily
iutiicted, almost before his eyes, on the friends and
adherents of his persecuted family. His looks, his
gestures, his silence, were scrutinised with malignant
curiosity, and he was perpetually assaulted by enemies
whom he had never o'tfended, and by arts to which he
was a stranger.^* But, in the school of adversity,
Julian insensibly acquired the virtues of firmness and
discretion. He defended his honour, as well as his
life, against the ensnaring subtleties of the eunuchs,
who endeavoured to extort some declaration of his
sentiments ; and, whilst he cautiously suppressed his
grief and resentment, he nobly disdained to Hatter the
tyrant by any seeming approbation of his brother's
murder. Julian most devoutly ascribes his miraculous
deliverance to the protection of the gods, who had
exempted his innocence from the sentence of destruc-
tion pronounced by their justice against the impious
house of Constantino.^^ As the most effectual instru-
ment of their providence, he gratefully acknowledges
18 Jiilian himself, in his epistle to the Athenians, draws a
very lively and just picture of his own danger, and of his senti-
r.ients. He shows, however, a tendency to exaggerate his
sufferings, by insinuating, though in obscure terras, that they
lasted above a year ; a period which cannot be reconciled with
the truth of chronology.
19 Julian has worked the crimes and misfortunes of the
family of Constantine into an allegorical fable, which is happily
conceived and agreably related. It forms the conclusion of the
seventh Oration, from whence it has been detached and trans-
lated by the Abb^ de la Bl^terie, Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. pp.
385-408.
288 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the steady and generous friendship of the empress
Eusebia^^^ a woman of beauty and merit, who, by the
ascendant which she had gained over tiie mind of
her husband, counterbalanced, in some measure, the
powerful conspiracy of the eunuchs. By the inter-
cession of his patroness, Julian was admitted into the
Imperial presence ; he pleaded his cause with a decent
freedom, he was heard with favour ; and, notwitli-
standing the efforts of his enemies, who urged the
danger of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus,
the milder sentiment of Eusebia prevailed in the
council. But the effects of a second interview were
dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was advised to
withdraw for a while into the neighbourhood of Milan,
till the emperor thought proper to assign the city of
Athens for the place of his honourable exile. As he
had discovered from his earliest youth a propensity, or
rather passion, for the language, the manners, the
learning, and the religion of the Greeks, he obeyed
with pleasure an order so agreeable to his wishes. Far
from the tumult of arms and the treachery of courts,
he spent six months amidst the groves of the academy,
in a free intercourse with the pliilosophers of the age,
who studied to cultivate the genius, to encourage the
vanity, and to inflame the devotion, of their royal
pupil. Their labours were not unsuccessful ; and
Julian inviolably preserved for Athens that tender
regard which seldom fails to arise in a liberal mind
fioni the recollection of the place where it has dis-
covered and exercised its growing powers. The
gentleness and affability of manners, which his temper
suggested and his situation imposed, insensibly engaged
the affections of the strangers, as well as citizens, with
whom he conversed. Some of his fellow-students might
perhaps examine his behaviour with an eye of prejudice
and aversion ; but Julian established, in the schools
2" She was a native of Thessalonica in Macedonia, of a noble
family, and the daughter as well as sister of consuls. Her
marriage with the emperor may lie placed in the year 352. In
a divided age the historians of all parties agree in her praises.
355 OF THE ROMAN EMriRE 289
of Athens, a g-eneral pre-possession in favour of his
virtues and talents, which was soon diffused over the
Roman world. ^^
^Vhilst his hours were passed in studious retirement,
the empress^ resolute to achieve the generous design
which she had undertaken, was not unmindful of the
care of his fortune. Tlie death of the late Caesar had
left Constantius invested with the sole command, and
oppressed by the accumulated weight, of a mighty
empire. Before the wounds of civil discord could be
healed, the provinces of Gaul were overwhelmed by a
deluge of Barbarians. The Sarmatians no longer re-
spected the barrier of the Danube. The impunity of
rapine had increased the boldness and numbers of the
wild Isaurians : those robbers descended from their
craggy mountains to ravage the adjacent country, and
had even presumed, though without success, to besiege
the important city of Seleucia, which was defended by
a garrison of three Roman legions. Above all, the
Persian monarch, elated by victory, again threatened
the peace of Asia, and the presence of the emperor was
indispensably required both in the "^^'e5t and in the
East. For the first time, Constantius sincerely ac-
knowledged that his single strength was unequal to
such an extent of care and of dominion. Insensible to
the voice of flattery, which assured him that his all-
powerful virtue and celestial fortune would still con-
tinue to triumph over every obstacle, he listened with
complacency to the advice of Eusebia, which gratified
his indolence, without offending his suspicious pride.
As she perceived that the remembrance of Gallus dwelt
on the emperor's mind, she artfully turned his attention
21 Libanius and Gregory Nazianzen have exhausted the arts
as well as the powers of their eloquence, to represent Julian as
the first of heroes, or the worst of tyrants. Gregory was his
fellow-student at Athens ; and the symptoms, which he so
tragically describes, of the future wickedness of the apostate
amount only to some bodily imperfections and to some p>ecu-
liarities in his speech and manner. He protests, however, that
he then foresaw and foretold the calamities of the church
and state.
vol,. II. ^
290 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
to the opposite characters of the two brothers, which
from their infancy had been compared to those of
Domitian and of Titus. She accustomed her husband
to consider Julian as a youth of a mild unambitious
disposition, whose allegiance and gratitude might be
secured by the gift of the purple, and who was qualified
to fill, with honour, a subordinate station, without
aspiring to dispute the commands, or to shade the
glories, of his sovereign and benefactor. After an
obstinate, though secret, struggle, the opposition of
the favourite eunuchs submitted to the ascendency of
the empress ; and it was resolved that Julian, after
celebrating his ]iu))tials with Helena, sister of Cou-
stantius, should be appointed, with the title of Caesar,
to reign over the countries beyond the Alps.
Although the order which recalled him to court was
probably accompanied by some intimation of his ap-
proaching greatness, he appeals to the people of Athens
to witness his tears of undissembled sorrow, when he
was reluctantly torn away from his beloved retirement.
He trembled for his life, for his fame, and even for
his virtue ; and his sole confidence was derived from
the pex'suasion that Minerva inspired all his actions,
and that he was protected by an invisible guard of
angels, whom for that purpose she had borrowed from
the Sun and Moon. He approached with horror the
palace of Milan ; nor could the ingenuous youth con-
ceal his indignation, when he found himself accosted
with false and servile respect by the assassins of his
family. Eusebia, rejoicing in the success of her bene-
volent schemes, embraced him with the tenderness
of a sister ; and endeavoured, by the most soothing
caresses, to dispel his terrors and reconcile him to his
fortune. But the ceremony of shaving his beard, and
his awkward demeanour, when he first e.vchanged the
cloak of a Greek philosopher for the military habit of
a Roman prince, amused, during a few days, the levity
of the Imperial court. ^■-
22 Julian himself relates (p. 274), with some humour, the
circumstances of his own metamorphosis, his downcast looks,
'Soo OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 291
The emperors of the a^e of Coustaiitiue no loager
deigned to consult with the senate in the choice of a
colleague ; but they were anxious that their nomination
should be ratified by the consent of the army. On
this solemn occasion, the guards, with the other troops
whose stations were in the neighbourhood of Milan,
appeared under arms ; and Constantius ascended his
lofty tribunal, holding by the hand his cousin Julian,
who entered the same day into the twenty-fifth year
of his age. In a studied speech, conceived and de-
livered with dignity, the emperor represented the
various dangers which threatened the prosperity of
the republic, the necessity of naming a Caesar for the
administration of the ^Vest, and his own intention, if
it was agreeable to their wishes, of rewarding with the
honours of the purple the promising virtues of the
nephew of Constantine. The approbation of the
soldiers was testified by a respectful murmur : they
gazed on the manly countenance of Julian, and observed
with pleasure that the fire which sparkled in his eyes
was tempered by a modest blush, on being thus ex-
posed, for the first time, to the public view of mankind.
As soon as the ceremony of his investiture had been
performed, Constantius addressed him with the tone of
authority which his superior age and station permitted
him to assume ; and_, exhorting the new Csesar to
deserve, by heroic deeds, that sacred and immort.-il
name, the emperor gave his colleague the strongest
assurances of friendship which should never be impaire<l
by time, nor interrupted by their separation into the
most distant climates. As soon as the speech was
ended, the troops, as a token of applause, clashed their
shields against their knees ; while the officers who
surrounded the tribunal expressed, with decent reserve,
their sense of the merits of the representative of Con-
stantius.
The two princes returned to the palace in the same
and his perplexity at being thus suddenly transported into
a new world, where every object appeared strange and
•hostile.
292 THE DECLINE AND FALL ad
chariot ; and_, during the slow procession, Julian re-
peated to himself a verse of his favourite Homer,
which he might equally apply to his fortune and to his
fears.^^ The four-and-tvrenty days which the Caesar
spent at Milan after his investiture, and the first
months of his Gallic reign, were devoted to a splendid
but severe captivity ; nor could the acquisition of
honour compensate for the loss of freedom. 2* His
steps were watched, his correspondence was inter-
cepted ; and he was obliged, by prudence, to decline
the visits of his most intimate friends. Of his former
domestics, four only were permitted to attend him ;
two pages, his physician, and his librarian : the last of
whom was employed in the care of a valuable collection
of books, the gift of the empress, who studied the
inclinations as well as the interest of her friend. In
the room of these faithful servants, an household was
formed, such indeed as became the dignity of a Caesar ;
but it was filled with a crowd of slaves, destitute and
perhaps incapable of any attachment for their new
master, to whom, for the most part, they were either
unknown or suspected. His vvant of experience might
require the assistance of a wise council ; but the
miTinte instructions which regulated the service of his
table, and the distribution of his hours, were adapted
to a youth still under the discipline of his preceptors,
rather than to the situation of a prince entrusted
with the conduct of an im])ortant war. If he aspired
to deserve the esteem of his subjects, he was checked
23 fSXa^e irop(pvc€o^ ddvaro^ Kal noTpa Kparai-^. The word
purple, which Homer had used as a vague bui common epithet
for death, was applied by Julian to express, very aptly, the
nature and object of his own apprehensions.
2^ He represents in the most pathetic terms (p. 277 [357]) the
distress of his new situation. The provision for his table was,
however, so elegant and sumptuous that the young philosopher
rejected it with disdain. Quum legeret libellum assidue, quern
Constantius ut privignum ad studia mittens manu sua con-
scripserat, prselicenter disponens quid in convivio Csesaris
impendi deberet, phasianum et vulvam et sumen exigi vetuit et
inferri. Ammian, Marcellin. 1. xvi, c. 5.
355 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 293
by the fear of displeasing his sovereign ; and even the
fruits of his marriage-bed were blasted by the jealous
artifices of Eusebia herself, who, on this occasion alone,
seems to have been unmindful of the tenderness of
ner sex and the generosity of her character. The
memory of his father and of his brothers reminded
Julian of his own danger, and his apprehensions were
increased by the recent and unworthy fate of Sylvan us.
In the summer which preceded his own elevation, that
general had been chosen to deliver Gaul from the
tyranny of the Barbarians ; but Sylvanus soon dis-
covered that he had left his most dangerous enemies
in the Imperial court. A dexterous informer, counte-
nanced by several of the principal ministers, procured
from him some recommendatory letters ; and erazing
the whole of the contents, except the signature, filled
up the vacant parchment with matters of high and
treasonable import. By the industry and courage of
his friends, the fraud was however detected, and in a
great council of the civil and military officers, held in
the presence of the emperor himself, the innocence of
Sylvanus was publicly acknowledged. But the dis-
covery came too late ; the report of the calumny and
the hasty seizure of his estate had already provoked
the indignant chief to the rebellion of which he was
so unjustly accused. He assumed the purple at his
head-quarters of Cologne, and his active powers ap-
peared to menace Italy with an invasion, and Milan
with a siege. In this emergency, Ursicinus, a general
of equal rank, regained, by an act of treachery, the
favour which he had lost by his eminent services in
the East. Exasperated, as he might speciously allege,
by injuries of a similar nature, he hastened with a few
followers to join the standard, and to betray the con-
fidence, of his too credulous friend. After a reign of
only twenty-eight days, Sylvanus was assassinated :
the soldiers who, without any criminal intention, had
blindly followed the example of their leader, imme-
diately returned to their allegiance ; and the flatterers
of Coustantius celebrated the wisdom and felicity of
294 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.i>.
the monarch who had exting-uished a civil war without
t)ie hazard of a hattle.^^
The protection of the Rhsetian frontier, and the
persecution of the Catholic Churchy detained Con-
Ptantius in Italy above eighteen months after the
departure of Julian. Before the emperor returned
into the East, he indulged his pride and curiosity in a
visit to the ancient capital. He proceeded from Milan
to Rome along the jjKniilian and Flaminian ways ; and,
as soon as he approached within forty miles of the city,
the march of a prince who had never vanqui.shed a
foreign enemy assumed the appearance of a triumphal
procession. His splendid train was composed of all the
ministers of luxury ; but in a time of profound peace,
he was encompassed by the glittering" arms of the
numerous squadrons of his guards and cuirassiers.
Their streaming banners of silk, embossed with gold
and shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the
person of the emperor. Constantius sat alone in a
lofty car resplendent with gold and precious gems ;
and, except when he bowed his head to pass under the
gates of the cities, he affected a stately demeanour of
inflexible and, as it might seem, of insensible gravity.
The severe discipline of the Persian youth had been
introduced by the eunuchs into the Imperial palace ;
and such were the habits of patience which they had
inculcated that, during a slow and sultry march, he
was never seen to move his hand towards his face or to
turn his eyes either to the right or to the left. He
was received by the magistrates and senate of Rome ;
and the emperor surveyed, with attention, the civil
honours of the republic and the consular images of the
noble families. The streets were lined with an in-
numerable multitude. Their repeated acclamations
expressed their joy at beholding, after an absence of
thirty-two years, the sacred person of their sovereign ;
and Constantius himself expressed, with some pleasantry,
25 Ammianus (xv. 5) was perfectly well informed of the
conduct and fate of Sylvanus. He himself was one of the few
followers who attended Ursicinus in his dangerous enterprise.
357 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 295
his affected surprise that the human race should thus
suddenly be collected on the same spot. The son
of Constantine was lodged in the ancient palace of
Augustus : he presided in the senate, harangued the
people from the tribunal which Cicero had so often
ascended, assisted with unusual courtesy at the games
of the circus, and accepted the crowns of gold as well
as the panegyrics which had been prepared for this
ceremony by the deputies of the principal cities. His
short visit of thirty days was employed in viewing the
monuments of art and power which were scattered over
the seven hills and the interjacent valleys. He admired
the awful majesty of the capitol, the vast extent of the
baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, the severe simplicity
of the Pantheon, the massy greatness of the amphi-
theatre of Titus, the elegant architecture of the theatre
of Pompey and the Temple of Peace, and, above all,
the stately structure of the Forum and column of
Trajan ; acknowledsring that the voice of fame, so prone
to invent and to magnify, had made an inadequate re-
port of the metropolis of the world. I'he traveller,
who has contemplated the ruins of ancient Rome, may
conceive some imperfect idea of the sentiments which
they must have inspired when they reared their heads
in the splendour of unsullied beauty.
The satisfaction which Constantius had received
from this journey excited him to the generous emula-
tion of bestowing on the Romans some memorial of
his own gratitude and munificence. His first idea
was to imitate the equestrian and colossal statue
which he had seen in the Forum of Trajan ; but, when
he had maturely weiofhed the difficulties of the execu-
tion,^^ he chose rather to embellish the capital by the
26 Hormisdas, a fugitive prince of Persia, observed to the
emperor that, if he made such a horse, he must think of pre-
paring a similar stable (the Forum of Trajan). Another saying
of Hormisdas is recorded, " that one thing only had displeased
him, to find that men died at Rome as well as elsewhere." If
we adopt this reading of the text of Ammianus (displicuisse in-
stead oi placvisse), we may consider it as a reproof of Roman
vanity. The contrary sense would be that of a misanthrope.
296 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
gift of an Egyptian obelisk. In a remote but polished
age, which seems to have preceded the invention of
alphabetical writing, a great number of these obelisks
had been erected, in the cities of Thebes and HelJo-
polis, by the ancient sovereigns of Egypt, in a just
confidence that the simplicity of their form and the
hardness of their substance would resist the injuries of
time and violence.-'^ Several of these extraordinary
columns had been transported to Rome by Augustus
and his successors, as the most durable monuments of
their power and victory ; but there remained one
obelisk which, from its size or sanctity, escaped for a
long time the rapacious vanity of the conquerors. It
was designed by Coustantine to adorn his new city ;
and, after being removed by his order from the pedestal
where it stood before the Temple of the Sun at Helio-
polis, was floated down the Nile to Alexandria. The
death of Constantiue suspended the execution of his
purpose, and this obelisk was destined by his son to
the ancient capital of the empire. A vessel of un-
common strength and capaciousness was provided to
convey this enormous weight of granite, at least an
hundred an fifteen feet in length, from the banks of
the Nile to those of the Tiber. The obelisk of Con-
stant! us was landed about three miles from the city,
and elevated by the efforts of art and labour, in the
great Circus of Rome.
The departure of Constantius from Rome was
hastened by the alarming intelligence of the distress
and danger of the Ulyriau provinces. Tlie distractions
of civil war, and the irreparable loss which the Roman
legions had sustained in the battle of Mursa, exposed
those countries, almost without defence, to the light
cavalry of the Barbarians ; and particularly to the
27 When Germanicus visited the ancient monuments of Thebes,
the eldest of the priests explained to him the meaning of these
hieroglyphics. Tacit. Annal. ii. c. 60. But it seems probable
that before the useful invention of an alphabet these natural or
arbitary signs were the common characters of the Egyptian
nation.
3.57-35P OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 297
inroads of the Quadi, a fierce and powerful nation,
v\li.> ?eem to have exchang^ed the institutions of
Germany for the arms and military arts of their
Sarmatian allies. The garrisons of the frontier were
insufficient to check their progress ; and the indolent
monarch was at length compelled to assemble, from
the extremities of his dominions, the flower of the
Palatine troops, to take the field in person, and to
employ a whole campaig-n, with the preceding autumn
and the ensuing spring, in the serious prosecution of
the war. The emperor passed the Danube on a bridge
of boats, cut in pieces all that encountered his march,
penetrated into the heart of the country of the Quadi,
and severely retaliated the calamities which they had
inflicted on the Roman province. The dismayed
Barbarians were soon reduced to siie for peace : they
offered the restitution of his captive subjects as an
atonement for the past, and the noblest hostages as a
pledgre of their future conduct. The generous ctourtesy
which was shown to the first among their chieftains
who implored the clemency of Constantius encouraged
the more timid, or the more obstinate, to imitate their
examples ; and the Imperial camp was crowded with
the princes and ambassadors of the most distant tribes,
who occupied the plains of the Lesser Poland, and
who might have deemed themselves secure behind
the lofty ridge of the Carpathian mountains. Whil^
Constantius gave laws to the Barbarians beyond the
Danube, he distinguished with specious compassion
the Sarmatian exiles who had been expelled from their
native country by the rebellion of their slaves, and
wlio formed a very considerable accession to the
power of the Quadi. The emperor, embracing a
generous but artful system of policy, released the
Sarmatians from the bands of this humiliating- de-
pendence, and restored them, by a separate treaty, to
the dignity of a nation united under the government
of a king, the friend and ally of the republic. He
declared his resolution of asserting the justice of their
cause, and of securing the peace of the provinces by
vol.. II. K 2
298 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
tlie extirpation, or at least the bauishment, of the
Liriiigaiites, whose manners were still infected witli
the vices of their servile origin. The execution of
this desig-n was attended with more difficulty than
^lory. The territory of the Limigantes was protected
against the Romans by the Danube, against the ho-stile
Barbarians by the Theiss. The marshy lands which
lay between those rivers, and were often covered by
their inundations, formed an intricate wilderness,
pervious only to the inhabitants, who were acquainted
with its secret paths and inaccessible fortresses. On
the approach of Constantius, the Limigantes tried the
efficacy of prayers, of fraud, and of arms ; but he
sternly rejected their supplications, defeated their
rude stratagems, and repelled with skill and firmness
the efforts of their irregular valour. One of their
most warlike tribes, est;iblished in a small island
towards the conflux of the Theiss and the Danube,
consented to pass the river with the intention of
surprising the emperor during the security of an
amicable conference. They soon became the victims
of the perfidy which they meditated. Encompassed on
every side, trampled down by the cavalry, slaughtered
by the swords of the legions, they disdained to ask for
mercy ; and with an undaunted countenance still
grasped their weapons in the agonies of death. After
this victory a considerable body of Romans was landed
on the opposite banks of the Danube ; the Taifake, a
Gothic tribe engaged in the service of the empire,
invaded the Limigantes on the side of the Theiss ; and
their former masters, the free Sarmatians, animated
by hope and revenge, penetrated through tlie hilly
country into the heart of their ancient possessions.
A general conflagration revealed the huts of the
Barbarians, which were seated in the depth of tlie
wilderness ; and the soldier fought with confidence on
marshy ground, which it was dangerous for him to
tread. In this extremity the bravest of the Limigantes
were resolved to die in arms, rather than to yield :
but the milder sentiment, enforced by the authority
358 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 299
of their elders^ at lentrth pi-evailed ; and the suppliant
crovvd^ followed by their wives and children, repaired
to the Imperial camp_, to learn their fate from the
mouth of the conqueror. After celebrating his own
clemency, which was still inclined to pardon their
repeated crimes and to spare the remnant ox" a guilty
nation, Constantius assigned for the place of their
exile a remote country, where they mig-ht enjoy a safe
and honourable repose. The Limigantes obeyed with
reluctance ; but before they could reach, at least
before they could occupy, their destined habitations,
they returned to the banks of the Danube, exaggerat-
ing the hardships of their situation, and requesting,
with fervent professions of fidelity, that the emperor
would grant them au undisturbed settlement within
the limits of the Roman provinces. Instead of con-
sulting his own experience of their incurable perfidy,
Constantius listened to his flatterers, who were ready
to represent the honour and advantage of accepting a
colony of soldiers, at a time when it was much easier
to obtain the pecuniary contributions than the military
service of the subjects of the empire. The Limigantes
were permitted to pass the Danube ; and the emperor
gave audience to the multitude in a large plain near
the modern city of Buda. They surrounded the
tribunal, and seemed to hear with respect an oration
full of mildness and dignity ; when one of the Bar-
barians, casting his shoe into the air, exclaimed with a
loud voice, Marha! Marha ! a word of defiance, which
was received as the signal of the tumult. They rushed
with fury to seize the person of the emperor ; his
royal throne and golden couch were pillaged by these
rude hands ; but the faithful defence of his guards,
who died at his feet, allowed him a moment to mount
a fleet horse, and to escape fi-om the confusion. The
disgrace which had been incurred by a treacherous
surprise was soon retrieved by the numbers and dis-
cipline of the Romans ; and the combat was only
tenninated by the extinction of the name and nation
of the Limigantes. The free Sarmatiaus were rein-
300 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
stated in the possession of their ancient seats ; and,
although Constantiiis distrusted the levity of their
character, he entertained some hopes that a sense of
gratitude might influence their future conduct. He
had remarked the lofty stature and obsequious de-
meanour of Zizais, one of the noblest of their chiefs.
He conferred on him the title of King ; and Zizais
proved that lie was not unworthy to reign by a sincere
and lasting attachment to the interest of his benefactor,
who, after this splendid success, received the name ot
SnrmaticMS from the acclamations of his victorious
army.
While the Roman emperor and the Persian monarch,
at the distance of three thousand miles, defended their
extreme limits against the Barbarians of the Danube
and of theOxus, their intermediate frontier experienced
the vicissitudes of a languid war, and a precarious
truce. Two of the eastern ministers of Constantius,
the Prfetorian prfefect Musonian, whose abilities were
disgraced by the want of truth and integrity, and
Cnssian, duke of Mesopotamia, a hardy and veteran
soldier, opened a secret negotiation with the satrap
Tamsapor. These overtures of peace, translated into
the servile and flattering language of Asia, were trans-
mitted to the camp of the Great King ; who resolved
to signify, by an ambassador, the terms which he was
inclined to grant to the suppliant Romans. Narses.
whom he invested with that character, was honourably
received in his passage through Antioch and Con-
stantinople : he reached Sirmium after a long journey,
and, at his first audience, respectfully unfolded the
silken veil which covered the haughty epistle of his
sovereign. Sapor, King of Kings, and Brother^of the
Sun and Moon (such were the lofty titles afl'ected by
oriental vanity), expressed his satisfaction that his
brother, Constantius Caesar, had been taught wisdom
by adversity. As the lawful successor of Darius
Plystaspes, Sapor asserted that the river Strymon in
Macedonia was the true and ancient boundary of his
empire ; declaring, however, that, as an evidence of
358 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 801
his moderation, he would couteut himself with the
provinces of Armenia and Mesopotamia, which had
been fraudulently extorted from his ancestors. He
alleged that, without the restitution of these disputed
countries, it was impossible to establish any treaty
on a solid and permanent basis ; and he arrogantly
threatened that, if his ambassador returned in vain,
he was prepared to take the field in the spring, and to
support the justice of his cause by the strength of his
invincible arms. Xarses, who was endowed with the
most polite and amiable manners, endeavoured, as far
as was consistent with his duty, to soften the harshness
of the message. Both the style and the substance
were maturely weighed in the Imperial council, and
he was dismissed with the following answer : " Con-
stant! us had a right to disclaim the olficiousness of his
ministers, who had acted without any specific orders
from the throne : he was not, however, averse to an equal
and honourable treaty ; but it was highly indecent, as
well as absurd, to propose to the sole and victorious
emperor of the Roman world the same conditions of
peace which he had indignantly rejected at the time
when his power was contracted within the narrow
limits of the East : the chance of arms was uncertain ;
ami Sapor should recollect that, if the Romans had
sometimes been vanquished in battle, they had almost
always been successful in the event of the war." A
few days after the departure of Narses, three am-
bassadors were sent to the court of Sapor, who was
already returned from the Scythian expedition to his
ordinary residence of Ctesiphon. A count, a notary,
and a sophist had been selected for this important com-
mission ; and Constautius, who was secretly anxious
for the conclusion of the peace, entertained some hopes
that the dignity of the first of these ministers, the
dexterity of the second, and the rhetoric of the third ^
28 The sophist, or philosopher (in that age these words were
ahnost synonymous), was Eustathius the Cappadocian, the
disciple of Jamblichus, and the friend of St. Basil. Eunapius
302 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
would persuade the Persian monarch to abate the rigour
of his demands. But the progress of their neijotia-
tion was opposed and defeated by the hostile arts of
Antoninus.-^ a Roman subject of Syria^ who had fled
from oppression, and was admitted into the councils of
Sapor, and even to the royal table, where, according
to the custom of the Persians, the most important
business was frequently discussed. ^^ The dexterous
fugitive promoted his interest by the same conduct
which gratified his revenge. He incessantly urged the
ambition of his new master to embrace the favourable
opportunity when the bravest of the Palatine troops
were employed with the emperor in a distant war on
the Danube. He pressed Sapor to invade the exhausted
and defenceless provinces of the East, with the numerous
armies of Persia, now fortified by the alliance and
accession of the fiercest Barbai-ians. The ambassadors
of Rome retired without success, and a second embassy of
a still more honourable rank was detained in strict con-
finement, and threatened either with death or exile.
The military historian, who was himself despatched
to observe the army of the Persians, as they were pre-
paring to construct a bridge of boats over the Tigris,
beheld from an eminence the plain of Assyria, as far
as the edge of the horizon, covered with men, with
horses, and with arms. Sapor appeared in the front,
conspicuous by the splendour of his purple. On his
left hand, the place of honour among the Orientals,
Grumbates, kiu^ of the Chionites, displayed the stern
(in vit. /Edesii, pp. 44-47) fondly attributes to this philosophic
ambassa ior the glory of enchanting the Barbarian king by the
persuasive charms of reason and eloquence.
2" The decent and respectful behaviour of Antoninus towards
the Roman general sets him in a very interesting light : and
Aramianus himself speaks of the traitor with some compassion
and esteem.
30 This circumstance, as it is noticed by Ammianus, serves to
prove the veracity of Herodotus (1. i. c. 133), and the perman-
ency of the Persian manners. In every age the Persians have
been addicted to intemperance, and the wines of Shiraz have
triumphed over the law of Mahomet.
359 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 803
countenance of an ag-ed and renowned warrior. The
monarcli bad reserved a similar place on his ri^ht
hand for the kin^ of the Albanians, who led his in-
dependent tribes from the shores of the Caspian. Tlie
Sfitraps and generals M-ere distributed according to
their several ranks, and the whole army, besides the
numerous train of oriental luxury, consisted of more
than one hundred thousand eft'ective men, inured to
fatigue, and selected from the bravest nations of Asia.
The Roman deserter, who in some measure guided the
councils of Sapor, had prudently advised that, instead
of wasting the summer in tedious and difficult sieges,
he should march directly to the Euphrates, and press
forwards without delay to seize the feeble and wealthy
metropolis of Syria. But the Persians were no sooner
advanced into the plains of Mesopotamia than they
discovered that every precaution had been used which
could retard their progress or defeat their design.
The inhabitants, with their cattle, were secured in
places of strength, the green forage throughout the
country was set on fire, the fords of the river were
fortified by sharp stakes ; military engines were planted
on the opposite banks, and a seasonable swell of the
waters of the Euphrates deterred the Barbarians from
attempting the ordinary passage of the bridge of
Thapsacus. Their skilful guide, changing his plan
of operations, then conducted the army by a longer
circuit, but through a fertile territory, towards the
head of the Euphrates, where the infant river is re-
duced to a shallow and accessible stream. Sapor over-
looked, with prudent disdain, the strength of Nisibis ;
but, as he passed under the walls of Amida, he resolved
to try whether the majesty of his presence would not
awe the garrison into immediate submission. The
sacrilegious insult of a random dart, which glanced
against the royal tiara, convinced him of his error ;
and the indignant monarch listened with impatience
to the advice of his ministers, who conjured him not
to sacrifice the success of his ambition to the gratifica-
tion of his resentment. The following day Grum bates
304 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
advauced towards the gates with a select body of troops,
aud required the iustaut surrender of the city as the
ouly atonement which could be accepted for such an
act of rashness and insolence. His proposals were
answered by a general discharge, aud his only sou, a
beautiful and valiant youth, was pierced through the
heart by a javelin, shot from one of the balistae. The
funeral of the prince of the Chionites was celebrated
according to the rites of his country ; and the grief of
his aged father was alleviated by the solemn promise
of Sapor that the guilty city of Amida should serve as
a funeral pile to expiate the death, and to perpetuate
the memory, of his sou.
The ancient city of Amid or Amida, which sometimes
assumes the provincial appellation of Diarbekir,^! is
advantageously situate in a fertile plain, watered by
the natural and artiticial channels of the Tigris, of
which the least inconsidsrable stream l>ends in a semi-
circular form round the eastern part of the city. The
emperor Constantius had recently conferred on Amida
the honour of his own name, and the additional forti-
fications of strong walls aud lofty towers. It was pro-
vided with an arsenal of military engines, and the
ordinary garrison had been reinforced to the amount
of seven legions, when the place was invested by the
arms of Sapor. His first aud most sanguine hopes
depended on the success of a general assault. To the
several nations which followed his standard their re-
spective posts were assigned ; the south to the Vert*,
the north to the Albanians, the east to the Chionites,
inflamed with grief and indignation ; the west to the
Segestans, the bravest of his warriors, who covered
their front with a formidable line of Indian elephants. ^'^
31 Diarbekir, which is styled Amid, or Kara-Amid, in the
public writings of the Turks, contains above 16,000 houses, and
is the residence of a pasha with three tails. The epithet of
Kara is derived from the blackness of the stone which composes
the strong and ancient wall of Amida.
32 Of these four nations, the Albanians are too well known to
require any description. The Segestans inhabited a large and
level country, which still preserves their name, to the south of
369 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 306
The Persians, ou every side, supported their efforts,
and aiiiniated their couraj^e ; aud the monarch himself,
careless of his rank aud safety^ displayed, iu the pro-
secution of the siej^e, the ardour of a youthful snidier.
After au obstinate combat the Barbarians vvere re-
pulsed ; they incessantly returned to the charjt^e ; they
were again driven back with a dreadful slaughter,
and two rebel legions of Gauls, who had been banished
into the East, signalised their undisciplined courage
by a nocturnal sally into the heart of the Persian camp.
In one of the fiercest of these repeated assaults, Amida
was betrayed by the treachery of a deserter, who in-
dicated to the Barbarians a secret and neglected stair-
case, scooped out of the rock that hangs over the
stream of the Tigris. Seventy chosen archers of the
royal guard ascended in silence to the third story of
a lofty tower which commanded the precipice ; they
elevated on high the Persian banner, the signal of
confidence to the assailants and of dismay to the be-
sieged ; and, if this devoted band could have maintained
their post a few minutes longer, the reduction of the
place might have been purchased by the sacrifice of
their lives. After Sapor had tried, without success,
the eflScacy of force aud of stratagem, he had recourse
to the slower but more certain operations of a regular
siege, in the conduct of which he was instructed by
the skill of the Roman deserters. The trenches were
opened at a convenient distance, and the troops
destined for that service advanced under the portable
cover of strong hurdles, to fill up the ditch and under-
mine the foundations of the walls. Wooden towers
were at the same time constructed, and moved forwards
on wheels, till the soldiers, who were provided with
every species of missile weapons, could engage almost
Ktiorasan, and the west of Hindostan. Notwithstanding the
boasted victory of Bahram, the Segestans, above fourscore years
afterwards, appear as an independent nation, the ally of Persia,
We are ignorant of the situation of the Vertae and Chionites,
but I am inclined to place them (at least the latter) towards
the confines of India and Scythia.
306 THE DECLINE AND FALl. a.d.
on level ground with the troops who defended the
rampart. Every mode of resistance which art could
su^g"est, or courage could execute, was employed in
the defence of Amida, and the works of Sapor were
more than once der:troyed by the fire of the Romans.
But the resources of a besieged city maybe exhausted.
Tlie Persians repaired their losses, and pushed their
approaches ; a larare breach was made by the battering-
ram, and the strensth of the garrison, wasted by the
sword and by disease, yielded to the fury of the assault.
The soldiers, the citizens, their wives, their children,
all who had not time to escape through the opposite
gate, were involved by the conquerors in a promiscuous
massacre.
But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the Roman
provinces. As soon as the first transports of victory
had subsided. Sapor was at leisure to reflect that, to
cliastise a disobedient city, he had lost the flower of
his troops, and the most favourable season for con-
quest.^-' Thirty thousand of his veterans had fallen
under the walls of Amida during the continuance of a
siege which lasted seventy-three days ; and the disap-
pointed monarch returned to his capital with afl'ected
triumph and secret mortification. It was more than
probable that the inconstancy of his Barbarian allies
was tempted to relinquish a war in which they had
encountered such unexpected difficulties ; and that the
aged king of the Chionites, satiated with revenge,
^^- Ammianus has marked the chronology of this year by three
signs, which do not perfectly coincide with each other, or with
the series of the history, i. The corn was ripe when Sapor in-
vaded Mesopotamia ; " Cum jam stipulA flavente turgerent ; "
a circumstance which, in the latitude of Aleppo, would naturally
refer us to the month of April or May. 2. The progress of
Sapor was checked by the overflowing of the Euphrates, which
generally happens in July and August. When Sapor had taken
Amida, after a siege of seventy-three days, the autumn was far
advanced. " Autumno prrecipifi haedorumque improbo sidere
exorto." To reconcile these apparent contradictions, we must
allow for some delay in the Persian king, some inaccuracy in
the historian, and some disorder in the seasons.
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 307
turned away witli horror from a scene of action where
he had been deprived of the hope of his family and
nation. The strength as well as spirit of the army
with which Sapor took the field in the ensuing spring
was no longer equal to the unbounded views of his
ambition. Instead of aspiring to the conquest of the
East, he was obliged to content himself with the
reduction of two fortified cities of Mesopotamia,
Singara and Bezabde ; the one situate in the midst of
8 sandy desert, the other in a small peninsula, sur-
rounded almost on every side by the deep and rapid
stream of the Tigris. Five Roman legions, of the
diminutive size to which they had been reduced in the
age of Constantine, were made prisoners, and sent into
remote captivity on the extreme confines of Persia.
After dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror
abandoned that solitary and sequestered place ; but
he carefully restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and
fixed in that important post a garrison or colony of
veterans, amply supplied with every means of defence,
and animated by high sentiments of honour and fidelity.
Towards the close of the campaign, the arms of Sapor
incurred some disgrace by an unsuccessful enterprise
against Virtha, or Tecrit, a strong, or as it was uni-
versally esteemed till the age of Tamerlane, an impreg-
nable fortress of the independent Arabs.
The defence of the East against the arms of Sapor
required, and would have exercised, the abilities of the
most consummate general : and it seemed fortunate
for the state that it was the actual province of the
brave Ursicinus, who alone deserved the confidence
of the soldiers and people. In the hour of danger,
Ursicinus was removed from his station by the in-
trigues of the eunuchs ; and the military command of
the East was bestowed, by the same influence, on
Sabinian, a wealthy and subtle veteran, who had
attained the infirmities, without acquiring the experi-
ence, of age. By a second order, which issued from
the same jealous and inconstant counsels, Ursicinus
was again despatched to the frontier of Mesopotamia,
308 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.i>.
aud coudemDed to sustain the labours of a war, the
honours of which had been transferred to his unwortliy
rival. Sabinian fixed his indolent station under tiie
walls of Edessa ; and, while he amused himself with
the idle parade of military exercise, and moved to the
sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic dance, the public de-
fence was abandoned to the boldness and diligence
of the former general of the East. But, whene\er
Ursicinus recommended any vigorous plan of opera-
tions ; when he proposed, at the head of a light and
active army, to wheel round the foot of the mountains,
to intercept the convoys of the enemy, to harass the
wide extent of the Persian lines, and to relieve the
distress of Amida ; the timid and envious commander
alleged that he was restrained by his positive orders
from endangering the safety of the troops. Amida
was at length taken ; its bravest defenders, who h.id
escaped the sword of the Barbarians, died in the
Roman camp by the hand of the executioner; and
Ursicinus himself, after supporting the disgrace of a
partial inquiry, was punished for the misconduct of
Sabinian by the loss of his military rank. But Con-
stantius soon experienced the truth of the prediction
which honest indignation had extorted from his injured
lieutenant, that, as long as such maxims of government
were suffered to prevail, the emperor himself would
find it no easy task to defend his eastern dominions
from the invasion of a foreign enemy. When he had
subdued or pacified the Barbarians of the Danube,
Constantius proceeded by slow marches into the East :
and, after he had wept over the smoking ruins of
Amida, he formed, with a powerful army, the siege of
Bezuhde. The walls were shaken by the reiterated
efforts of the most enormous of the battering-rams :
the town was reduced to the last extremity ; but it
was still defended by the patient and intrepid valour
of the garrison, till the approach of the rainy season
obliged the emperor to raise the siege, and ingloriously
to retreat into his winter quarters at Antioch. Tlie
pride of Constantius and the ingenuity of his courtiers
3no-361 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 309
were at a loss to discover any materials for paneg-yric
ill the events of the Persian war ; while the glory of his
cousin Julian, to whose military command he had en-
trusted the provinces of Gaul, was proclaimed to the
world in the simple and concise narrative of his exploits.
In the hlind fury of civil discord. C'onstantius had
ahandoned to the Barbarians of Germany the countries
of Gaul, which still acknowledged the authority of his
rival. A numerous swarm of Franks and Alemanni
were invited to cross the Rhine by presents and pro-
mises, by the hopes of spoil, and by a perpetual grant
of all the territories which they should be able to
subdue. But the emperor, who for a temporary service
had thus imprudently provoked the rapacious spirit
of the Barbarians, soon discovered and lamented the
difficulty of dismissing these formidable allies, after
they had tasted the richness of the Roman soil.
Resrardless of the nice distinction of loyalty and re-
bellion, these undisciplined robbers treated as their
natural enemies all the subjects of the empire, who
possessed any property which they were desirous of
acquiring. Forty -five flourishing cities, Tongres,
Coloerne, Treves, Worms, Spires, Strasburg, <Src.,
besides a far greater number of towns and villages,
we7'e pillaged, and for the most part reduced to ashes.
TTie Barbarians of Germany, still faithful to the
maxims of their ancestors, abhorred the confinemient
of walls, to which they applied the odious names of
prisons and sepulchres ; and, fi.xing their independent
habitations on the banks of rivers, the Rhine, the
Moselle, and the Meuse, they secured themselves
against the danger of a surprise by a rude and hasty
fortification of large trees, which were felled and
thrown across the roads. The Alemanni were estab-
lished in the modern countries of Alsace and Lorraine ;
the Franks occupied the island of the Batavians,
together with an extensive district of Brabant, which
was then known by the appellation of To.vandrin,^
34 Ammianus (xvi. 8). This name seems to be derived from
the Toxandri of Pliny, and very frequently occurs in the histories
310 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
and may deserve to be considered as the orij^iual seat
of their Gallic monarchy. -^^ From the sources to the
mouth of the Rhine, the conquests of the Germans
extended above forty miles to the west of that river,
over a country peopled by colonies of their own name
and nation ; and the scene of their devastations was
three times more extensive than that of their conquests.
At a still greater distance the open towns of Gaul were
deserted, and the inhabitants of the fortified cities,
who trusted to their strength and vigilance, were
obliged to content themselves with such supplies of
corn as they could raise on the vacant land within
the inclosure of their walls. The diminished legions,
destitute of pay and provisions, of arms and discipline,
trembled at the approach, and even at the name, of
the Barbarians.
Under these melancholy circumstances, an unex-
perienced youth was appointed to save and to govern
the provinces of Gaul, or rather, as he expresses it
himself, to exhibit the vain image of imperial great-
ness. The retired scholastic education of Julian, in
which he had been more conversant with books than
with arms, with the dead than with the living, left
him in profound ignorance of the practical arts of war
and government ; and, when he awkwardly repeated
some military exercise which it was necessary for him
to learn, he exclaimed with a sigh, '^ O Plato, Plato,
what a task for a philosopher ! " Yet even this
of the middle age. Toxandria was a country of woods and
morasses which extended from the neighbourhood of Tongres
to the conflux of the Vahal and the Rhine.
35 The paradox of P. Daniel, that the Franks never obtained
any permanent settlement on his side of the Rhine before the
time of Clovis, is refuted with much learning and good sense by
M. Biet, who has proved, by a chain of evidence, their uninter-
rupted possession of Toxandria one hundred and thirty years
before the accession of Clovis. The Dissertation of M. Biet was
crowned by the Academy of Soissons in the year 1736, and
seems to have been justly preferred to the discourse of his more
celebrated competitor, the Abb6 le Boeuf, an antiquarian vvhose
name was happily expressive of his talents.
360-o<jl OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 311
speculative philosophy, which men of business are too
apt to despise, had filled the mind of Julian with the
noblest precepts and the most shining examples ; had
animated him with the love of virtue, the desire of
fame, and the contempt of death. The habits of
temperance recommended in the schools are still more
essential in the severe discipline of a camp. The
simple wants of nature regulated the measure of his
food and sleep. Rejecting- with disdain the delicacies
provided for his table, he satisfied his appetite with
the coarse and common fare which was allotted to the
meanest soldiers. During the rigour of a Gallic winter,
he never suifered a fire in his bed-chamber ; and after
a short and interrupted slumber he frequently rose
in the middle of the nrght from a carpet spread on
the floor, to despatch any urgent business, to visit his
rounds, or to steal a few moments for the prosecution
of his favourite studies.^^ The precepts of eloquence
which he had hitherto practised on fancied topics of
declamation were more usefully applied to excite or
assuage the passions of an armed multitude : and,
although Julian, from his early habits of conversation
and literature, was more familiarly acquainted with
the beauties of the Greek language, he had attained
a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue. ^^ Since
Julian was not originally designed for the character
of a legislator or a judge, it is probable that the civil
jurisprudence of the Romans had not engaged any
considerable share of his attention : but he derived
from his philosophic studies an inflexible regard for
justice, tempered by a disposition to clemency ; the
knowledge of the general principles of equity and
S8 The private life of Julian in Gaul, and the severe discipline
which he embraced, are displayed by Ammianus (xvi. 5), v/ho
professes to praise, and by Julian himself, who affects to ridicule
(Misopogon, p. 340), a conduct which, in a prince of the houst:
of Constantine, might justly excue the surprise of mankind.
37 Aderat Latine quoque disserenti sufficiens sermo. Am-
mianus, xvi. 5. But Julian, educated in the schools of Greece
always considered the language of the Romans as a foreign au-i
popular dialect, which he might use on necessary occasions.
312 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.p.
evidence; and the faculty of patiently investig-atinc:
the most intricate and tedious questions which could
he proposed for his discussion. The measures of policy
and the operations of war must suhmit to the various
accidents of circumstance and character, and the un-
practised student will often he perplexed in the
application of the most perfect theory. But in the
acquisition of this important science, Julian was
assisted hy the active vieour of his own genius, as
well as by the wisdom and experience of Sallust, an
officer of rank, who soon conceived a sincere attach-
ment for a prince so worthy of his friendship ; and
whose incorruptible integrity was adorned by the talent
of insinuating- the harshest truths without wounding-
the delicacy of a royal ear.^^
Immediately after Julian had received the purple
at Milan, he was sent iTito Gaul, with a feeble retinue
of three hundred avid sixty soldiers. At Vienna, where
he passed a painful and anxious winter, in the hands
of those ministers to whom Constant! us had entrusted
the direction of his conduct, the Csesar was informed
of the sieg-e and deliverance of Autun, That larg-e
and ancient city, protected only by a ruined wall and
pusillanimous garrison, was saved by the generous
resolution of a few veterans, who resumed their arms
for the defence of their country. In his march from
Autun through the heart of the Gallic provinces,
Julian embraced with ardour the earliest opportunity
of signalising bis courage. At the head of a small
body of archers and heavy cavalry, he preferred the
shorter but the more dangerous of two roads ; and
sometimes eludina:, and sometimes resisting, the attacks
of the Barbarians, who were masters of the held, he
arrived with honour and safety at the camp near
88 We are ig^norant of the actual office of this excellent minister,
whom Julian afterwards created praefect of Gaul. Sallust was
speeHily recalled by the jealousy of the emperor; and we may
still read a sensible but pedantic discourse (pp. 240-252), in
which Julian deplores the loss of so valuable a friend, to whom
he acknowledges himself indebted for his reputation.
356 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 813
Rheims, where the Roman troops had been ordered
to assemble. The aspect of their young prince revived
the drooping spirit of the soldiers, and they marched
from Rheims in search of the enemy, with a confidence
which had almost proved fatal to them. The Alemanni,
familiarised to the knowledge of the country, secretly
collected their scattered forces and, seizing the oppor-
tunity of a dark and rainy day, poured with unexpected
fury on the rear-guard of the Romans. Before the
inevitable disorder could be remedied two legions were
destroyed ; and Julian was taught by experience that
caution and vigilance are the most important lessons
of the art of war. In a second and more successful
action, he recovered and established his military fame :
but, as the agility of the Barbarians saved them from
the pursuit, his victory was neither bloody nor decisive.
He advanced, however, to the banks of the Rhine,
surveyed the ruins of Cologne, convinced himself of
the difficulties of the war, and retreated on the ap-
proach of winter, discontented with the court, with
his army, and with his own success.^^ The power of
the enemy was yet unbroken ; and the Caesar had no
sooner separated his troops, and fixed his own quarters
at Sens, in the centre of Gaul, than he was surrounded
and besieged by a numerous host of Germans. Reduced
in this extremity to the resources of his own mind, he
displayed a prudent intrepidity which compensated for
all the deficiencies of the place and garrison ; and the
Barbarians, at the end of thirty days, were obliged to
retire with disappointed rage.
The conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted
only to his sword for this signal deliverance, was em-
bittered by the reflection that he was abandoned, be-
trayed, and perhaps devoted to destruction, by those
who were bound to assist him by every tie of honour
and fidelity. Marcellus, master-general of the cavalry
39 Ammianus (xvi. 2, 3) appears much better satisfied with
the success of his first campaign than Juhan himself; who very
fairly owns that he did nothing of consequence, and that he
fled before the enemy.
314 IHP: decline and fall A.D.
in Gaulj interpreting too strictly the jealous order* of
the court, beheld with supine indifference the distress
of Julian, and had restrained the troops under his
command from marching to tlie relief of Sens. If the
Cwsar had dissembled in silence so dangerous an insult,
his person and authority would have been exposed to
the contempt of the world ; and, if an action so criminal
had been suffered to pass with impunity, the emperor
would have confirmed the suspicions which received a
very specious colour from his past conduct towards the
princes of the Flavian family, Marcellus was recalled,
and srently dismissed from his office.^ In his room
Severus was appointed general of the cavalry ; an
experienced soldier, of approved courage and fidelity,
who could advise with respect and execute with zeal ;
and who submitted, without reluctance, to the supreme
command which Julian, by the interest of his patroness
Eusebia, at length obtained over the armies of Gaul
A very judicious plan of operations was adopted for
the approaching campaign. Julian himself, at the head
of the remains of the veteran bands, and of some new
levies which he had been permitted to form, boldly
penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments
and carefully re-established the fortifications of Saverne
in an advantageous post, which would either check the
incursions, or intercept the retreat, of the enemy. At
the same time Barbatio, general of the infantry, ad-
vanced from Milan with an army of thirty thousand men,
and passing the mountains prepared to throw a bridge
over the Rhine, in the neighbourhood of Basil. It
was reasonable to expect that the Alemanni, pressed
on either side by the Roman arms, would soon be
forced to evacuate the provinces of Gaul, and to hasten
to the defence of their native country. But the hopes
of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, or
4^ Ammian. xvi. 7, Libanius speaks rather more advan-
tageously of the military talents of Marcellus, Orat. x. p. 272.
And Julian insinuates that he would not have been so easily
recalled, unless he had given other reasons of offence to the
court, p. 278.
I
357 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 316
the envy, or the secret instructions, of Barbatio ; who
acted as if he had been the enemy of the Csesar and
the secret ally of the Barbarians. The neg^lig-ence with
which he permitted a troop of pillaffers freely to pass,
and to return almost before the gates of his camp,
may be imputed to his want of abilities ; but the treason-
able act of burning" a number of boats, and a super-
fluous stock of provisions, which would have been of
the most essential service to the army of Gaul, was
an evidence of his hostile and criminal intentions.
'J'he Germans despised an enemy who appeared
destitute either of power or of inclination to offend
them ; and the ignominious retreat of Barbatio de-
prived Julian of the expected support, and left him
to extricate himself from a hazardous situation, where
he could neither remain with safety nor retire with
honour.
As soon as they were delivered from the fears of
invasion, the Alemanni prepared to chastise the Roman
youth, who presumed to dispute the possession of that
country which they claimed as their own by the right
of conquest and of treaties. They employed three
days and as many nights in transporting over the
Rhine their military powers. The fierce Chnodomar,
shaking the ponderous javelin, which he had victoriously
wielded against the brother of Magnentius, led the van
of the Barbarians, and moderated by his experience
the martial ardour which his example inspired. He
was followed by six other kings, by ten princes of regal
extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and
by thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the
tribes of Germany. The confidence derived from the
view of their own strength was increased by the in-
telligence which they received from a deserter, that
the Csesar, with a feeble army of thirteen thousand
men. occupied a post about one-and-twenty miles from
their camp of Strasburg. With this inadequate force,
Julian resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarian
host ; and the chance of a general action was preferred
to the tedious and uncertain operation of separately
316 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.u.
engaging- the dispersed parties of the Alemanni. The
Romans marched in close order^ and in two column^,
the cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left ; and
the day was so far spent when they appeared in sight
of the enemy, that Julian was desirous of deferring the
battle till the next morning, and of allowing his troops
to recruit their exhausted strength by the necessary
refreshments of sleep and food. Yielding, however,
with some reluctance to the clamours of the soldiers,
and even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted
them to justify by their valour the eager impatience,
which, in case of a defeat, would be universally branded
with the epithets of rashness and presumption. Tlie
trumpets sounded, the military shout was heard through
the field, and the two armies rushed with equal fury to
the charge. The Caesar, who conducted in person his
right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers,
and the weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were
instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light-horse
and of light-infantry, and he had the mortification of
beholding the flight of six hundred of his most re-
nowned cuirassiers.^^ The fugitives were stopped and
rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who,
<areless of his owu safety, threw himself before them,
and, urging every motive of shame and honour, led
them back against the victorious enemy. The conflict
between the two lines of infantry was obstinate and
bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of
strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and
temper ; and, as the Barbarians who served under tlie
standard of the empire united the respective advantages
of both parties, their strenuous etforts, guided by a
skilful leader, at length determined the event of the
rlay. The Romans lost four tribunes, and two hundred
and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable battle of
*i After the battle, Julian ventured to revive the rigour of
ancient discipline by exposing these fugitives in female appnrel
to the derision of the whole camp. In the next campaign, th< se
troops nobly retrieved their honour.
357 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 317
Strasburof, so g-lorioiis to the Caesar /^ and so salutary
to the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the
Alemaniii were slain in tlie field, without including
those who were drowned in the Rliine or transfixed with
darts whilst they attempted to swim across the river. ^^
Chnodomar himself was surrounded and taken prisoner,
with three of his brave companions, who had devoted
themselves to follow in life or death the fate of their
chieftain. Julian received him with military pomp in
the council of his officers ; and, expressing a generous
pity for the fallen state, dissembled his inward con-
tempt for the abject humiliation, of his captive. Instead
of exhibiting the vanquished king of the Alemanni, as
a iirateful spectacle to the cities oif Gaul, he respectfully
hiid at the feet of the emperor this splendid trophy of
his victory. Chnodomar experienced an honourable
treatment : but the im])atient Barbarian could not
long survive his defeat, his confinement, and his
exile.
After Julian had repulsed the Alemanni from the
provinces of the Upper Rhine, he turned his arms
against the Franks, who were seated nearer to the
ocean on the confines of Gaul and Germany, and who,
from their numbers, and still more from their intrepid
valour, had ever been esteemed the most formidable
^- Julian himself (ad. S. P. Q. Athen. p. 279) speaks of the
battle of Strasburg with the modesty of conscious merit ;
ifj.axfo-(i,ur]v ovk d/cAews. t'crwy Kal els v/J.as d<piK€TO tj TOLaimj
fxaxv- Zosimus compares it with the victory of Alexander over
Darius ; and yet we are at a loss to discover any of those strokes
of military genius which tix the attention of ages on the conduct
and success of a single day.
■^3 Libanius adds 2000 more to the number of the slain
(Orat. X. p. 274I But these trifling differences disappear before
the 60,000 Barbarians whom Zosimus has sacrificed to the
glory of his hero (1. iii. p. 141 \ We might attribute this ex-
travagant number to the carelessness of transcribers, if this
credulous or partial historian had not swelled the army of 35,000
Alemanni to an innumerable multitude of Barbarians, ttXtjOos
diretpov /Sap/Sdpwi'. It is our own fault if this detection docs not
inspire us with proper distrust on similar occasions.
318 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.i>.
of the Barbariaus. Although they were stroujily
actuated by the allurements of rapine, they professed
a disinterested love of war, which they considered ;i^
the supreme honour and felicity of human nature ;
and their minds and bodies were so completely hardene'i
by perpetual action that, according to the lively ex-
pression of an orator, the snows of winter were as
pleasant to them as the flowers of spring. In the
month of December, which followed the battle of
Strasburg, Julian attacked a body of six hundred
Franks, who had thrown themselves into two castles
on the Meuse. **■* In the midst of that severe season
they sustained, with inflexible constancy, a siege of
fifty-four days ; till at length, exhausted by hunger,
and satisfied that the vigilance of the enemy in break-
ing the ice of the river left them no hopes of escape,
the Franks consented, for the first time, to dispense
with the ancient law which commanded them to
conquer or to die. The C-aesar immediately sent his
captives to the court of Constantius, who, accepting
them as a valuable present, rejoiced in the opportunity
of adding so many heroes to the choicest troops of his
domestic guards. Ihe obstinate resistance of this
handful of Franks apprised Julian of the diflficulties
of the expedition which he meditated for the ensuing
spring aii^ainst the whole body of the nation. His
rapid diligence surprised and astonished tlie active
Barbarians. Ordering his soldiers to provide them-
selves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly
pitched his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still
supposed him in his winter quarters of Paris, expect-
ing tlie slow arrival of his convoys from Aquitain.
Without allowing the Franks to unite or to deliberate,
he skilfully spread his legions from Cologne to the
ocean ; and by the terror as well as by the success of
** The Greek orator, by misapprehending a passage of Julian,
has been induced to represent the Franks as consisting of a
thousand men ; and, as his head was alw ays full of the Pelopon-
nesian war. he compares them to the L^acedaemonians, who
were besieged and taken in the island of Sphacteria.
868 OF THE ROiMAN EMPIRE 319
his arms soon reduced the suppliant tribes to implore
the clemency, and to obey the commands, of their
conqueror. The Chamavians submissively retired to
their former habitations beyond the Rhine : but the
Salians were permitted to possess their new establish-
ment of Toxandria, as the subjects and auxiliaries of
the Roman Empire. The treaty was ratified by solemn
oaths ; and perpetual inspectors were appointed to
reside among- the Franks, with the authority of en-
forcing the strict observance of the conditions. An
incident is related, interesting enough in itself, and
by no means repugnant to the character of Julian,
who ingeniously contrived both the plot and tiie
catastrophe of the tragedy. When the Chamavians
sued for peace, he required the son of their king, as
the only hostage on whom he could rely. A mournful
silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declared the
sad perplexity of the Barbarians ; and their aged chief
lamented in pathetic language that his private loss
was now embittered by a sense of the public calamity.
While the Chamavians lay prostrate at the foot of his
throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to have
been slain, unexpectedly appeared before their eyes ;
and, as soon as the tumult of Joy was hushed into
attention, the Caesar addressed the assembly in the
following terms : '' Behold the son, the prince, whom
you wept. You had lost him by your fault, God and
the Romans have restored him to you. I shall still
preserve and educate the youth, ratliei' as a monument
of my own virtue than as a pledge of your sincerity.
Should you presume to violate the faith which you
have sworn, the arms of the republic will avenge the
perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty," The
Barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed
with the warmest sentiments of gratitude and ad-
miration.
It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the
provinces of Gaul from the Barbarians of Germany
He aspired to emulate the glory of the first and most
illustrious of the emperors ; after whose example Me
320 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
composed his own commentaries of the Gallic war.*^
Caesar has related, with conscious pride, the manner
in which he tmce passed the Rhine. Julian could
boast that, before he assumed the title of Augustus,
he had carried the Roman Eag:les beyond that great
river in three successful expeditions. The consterna-
tion of the Germans, after the battle of Strashurg,
encouraged him to the first attempt ; and the reluc-
tance of the troops soon yielded to the persuasive
eloquence of a leader who shared the fatigues and
dangers which he imposed on the meanest of the
soldiers. The villages on either side of the Main,
which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle,
felt the ravages of an invading army. The principal
houses constructed with some imitation of Roman
elesrance, were consumed by the flames ; and the
Caisar boldly advanced about ten miles, till his pro-
gress was stopped by a dark and impenetrable forest, un-
dermined by subterraneous passages, which threatened,
with secret snares and ambush, every step of the
assailant. The ground was already covered with snow ;
and Julian, after repairing an ancient castle which
had been erected by Trajan, granted a truce of ten
months to the submissive Barbarians. At the expira-
tion of the truce, Julian undertook a second expedition
beyond the Rhine, to humble the pride of Surmar and
Ilortaire, two of the kings of the Alemanni, who had
been present at the battle of Strasburg. Tliey promised
to restore all the Roman captives who yet remained
alive ; and, as the Cjesar had procured an exact account
from the cities and villages of Gaul, of the inhabitants
whom they had lost, he detected every attempt to
deceive him with n degree of readiness and accuracy
■»* Libanius, the friend of Julian, clearly insinuates (Oral, iv.
p. 178) that his hero had composed the history of his Gallic
campaigns. But Zosimus (1. iii. p. 140) seems to have derived
his information only from the Orations {X6701) and the Epistles
of Julian. The discourse which is addressed to the Athenians
contains an accurate, though general, account of the war against
the Germans.
357-359 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 821
which almost established the belief of his supernatural
knowledge. His third expedition was still more
splendid and important than the two former. The
Germans had collected their military powers, and
moved along the opposite banks of the river, with a
design of destroying the bridge and of preventing the
passage of the Romans. But this judicious plan of
defence was disconcerted by a skilful diversion. Three
hundred light-armed and active soldiers were detached
in forty small boats, to fall down the stream in silence,
and to land at some distance from the posts of the
enemy. They executed their orders with so much
boldness and celerity that they had almost surprised
the Barbarian chiefs, who returned in the fearless
confidence of intoxication from one of their nocturnal
festivals. Without repeating the uniform and disgust-
ing tale of slaughter and devastation, it is sufficient to
observe that Julian dictated his own conditions of peace
to six of the haughtiest kings of the Alemanni, three
of whom were permitted to view the severe discipline
and martial pomp of a Roman camp. Followed by
twenty thousand captives, whom he had rescued from
the chains of the Barbarians, the Csesar repassed the
Rhine, after terminating a war, the success of which
has been compared to the ancient glories of the Punic
and Cimbric victories.
As soon as the valour and conduct of Julian had
secured an interval of peace, he applied himself to
a work more congenial to his humane and philosophic
temper. The cities of Gaul, which had suffered from
the inroads of the Barbarians, he diligently repaired ;
and seven important posts, between Mainz and the
mouth of the Rhine, are particularly mentioned, as
having been rebuilt and fortified by the order of
Julian.*^ The vanquished Germans had submitted
46 Of these seven posts, foiu- are at present towns of some con-
sequence ; Bingen, Andernach, Bonn, and Neuss. The other
three, Tricesimas, Quadriburgium , and Castra Herculis, or
Heraclea, no longer subsist ; but there is i-oom to believe that,
VOL. JI.
L
322 THE DECLINE AND FALL
to the just but humiliating condition of preparing
and conveying the necessary materials. The active
zeal of Julian urged the prosecution of the work ; and
such was the spirit which he had diffused among the
troops that the auxiliaries themselves^ waving their
exemption from any duties of fatigue^, contended in
the most servile labours with the diligence of the
Roman soldiers. It was incumbent on the Caesar to
provide for the subsistence, as well as for the safety,
of the inhabitants and of the garrisons. The desertion
of the former, and the mutiny of the latter, must have
been the fatal and inevitable consequences of famine,
^rhe tillage of the provinces of Gaul had been inter-
rupted by the calamities of war ; but the scanty
harvests of the continent were supplied, by his
paternal care, from the plenty of the adjacent island.
Six hundred large barks, framed in the forest of the
Ardennes, made several voyages to the coast of Britain ;
and, returning from thence laden with corn, sailed up
the Rhine, and distributed their cargoes to the several
towns and fortresses along the banks of the river.*''
The arms of Julian had restored a free and secure
navigation, which Constantius had offered to purchase
at the expense of his dignity, and of a tributary present
of two thousand pounds of silver. The emperor parsi-
moniously refused to his soldiers the sums which he
granted with a lavish and trembling hand to the
Barbarians. The dexterity, as well as the firmness,
of Julian was put to a severe trial, when he took the
field with a discontented army, which had already
on the ground of Quadriburgium, the Dutch have constructed
the fort of Schenk, a name so offensive to the fastidious delicacy
of Boileau.
•^"^ We may credit Julian himself, Orat. ad. S. P. Q. Athenien-
sem, p. 280, who gives a very particular account of the transac-
tion. Zosimus adds two hundred vessels more, I. iii. p. 145.
If we compute the 600 corn ships of Julian at only seventy tons
each, they were capable of exporting 120,000 quarters (see
Arbuthnot's Weights and Measures, p. 237) ; and the country
which could bear so large an exportation must akeady have
attained an improved state of agriculture.
OF THE ROMAN ExMPJRE 323
served two campaig^ns without receiving any regular
pay or any extraordinary donative.*^
A tender regard for the peace and happiness of his
subjects was the ruling principle which directed, or
seemed to direct, the administration of Julian. He
devoted the leisure of his winter quarters to the offices
of civil government, and affected to assume with more
pleasure the character of a magistrate than that of a
general. Before he took the field, he devolved on
the provincial governors most of the public and private
causes which had been referred to his tribunal ; but,
on his return, he carefully revised their proceedings,
mitigated the rigour of the law, and pronounced a
second judgment on the judges themselves. Superior
to the last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet
and intemperate zeal for justice, he restrained, with
calmness and dignity, the warmth of an advocate
who prosecuted, for extortion, the president of the
Narbonnese province. " Who will ever be found
guilty," exclaimed the vehement Delphidius, "if it
be enough to deny?" "And who,^' replied Julian,
''will ever be innocent, if it be sufficient to affirm?"
In the general administration of peace and war, the
interest of the sovereign is commonly the same as that
of his people ; but Coustantius would have thought
himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had
defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he
extorted from an oppressed and exhausted country.
The prince, who was invested with the ensigns of
royalty, might sometimes presume to correct the
rapacious insolence of the inferior agents, to expose
their corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and
easier mode of collection. But the management of
the finances was more safely entrusted to Florentius,
Praetorian prefect of Gaul, an effeminate tyrant, in-
capable of pity or remorse ; and the haughty minister
complained of the most decent and gentle opposition,
while Julian himself was rather inclined to censure
"^ The troops once broke out into a mutiny, immediately
before the second passage of the Rhine.
324 THE DECLINE AND FALL
the weakness of liis own behaviour. The Caesar had
rejected with abhorrence a mandate for the levy of
an extraordinary tax ; a new superindiction, which
the praefect had offered for his sig-nature ; and the
faithful picture of the public misery, by which he
had been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the
court of Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of
reading the sentiments of Julian, as he expresses them
with warmth and freedom in a letter to one of his
most intimate friends. After stating his own conduct,
he proceeds in the following terms : *^^ Was it possible
for the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise
than I have done ? Could I abandon the unhappy
subjects entrusted to my care.'* Was I not called
upon to defend them from the repeated injuries of
these unfeeling robbers.'' A tribune who deserts his
post is punished with death and deprived of the
honours of burial. With what justice could 1 pro-
nounce his sentence, if, in the hour of danger, I
myself neglected a duty far more sacred and far more
important.'' God has placed me in this elevated post;
his providence will guard and support me. Should I
be condemned to suffer, 1 shall derive comfort from
the testimony of a pure and upright conscience.
Would to heaven that I still possessed a councillor
like Sallust ! If they think proper to send me a
successor, I shall submit without reluctance ; and had
much rather improve the short opportunity of doing
good than enjoy a long and lasting impunity of evil."
The precarious and dependent situation of Julian dis-
played his virtues and concealed his defects. The
young hero who supported, in Gaul, the throne of
Constantius was not permitted to reform the vices of
the government ; but he had courage to alleviate or
to pity the distress of the people. Unless he had
been able to revive the martial spirit of the Romans,
or to introduce the arts of industry and refinement
among their savage enemies, he could not entertain
any rational hopes of securing the public tranquillity,
either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yet the
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 325
victories of Julian suspended, for a short time,, the
inroads of the Barbarians, and delayed the ruin of
the W^esteru Empire.
His salutary influence restored the cities of Gaul,
which had been so long exposed to the evils of civil
discord, barbarian war, and domestic tyranny ; and
the spirit of industry was revived with the hopes of
enjoyment. Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce
again flourished under the protection of the laws ; and
the curicE, or civil corporations, were again filled with
useful and respectable members ; the youth were no
longer apprehensive of marriage ; and married persona
were no longer apprehensive of posterity : the public
and private festivals were celebrated with customary
pomp ; and the frequent and secure intercourse of the
provinces displayed the image of national prosperity.
A mind like that of Julian must have felt the general
happiness of which he was the author ; but he viewed
with peculiar satisfaction and complacency the city
of Paris, the seat of his winter residence, and the
object even of his partial aff"ection. That splendid
capital, which now embraces an ample territory on
either side of the Seine, was originally confined to
the small island in the midst of the river, from whence
the inhabitants derived a supply of pure and salubrious
water. The river bathed the foot of the walls ; and
the town was accessible only by two wooden bridges.
A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine ;
but on the south,, the ground, which now bears the
name of the university, was insensibly covered with
houses, and adorned with a palace and amphitheatre,
baths, an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise
for the Roman troops. The severity of the climate
was tempered by the neighbourhood of the ocean ;
and with some precautions, which experience had
taught, the vine and fig-tree were successfully culti-
vated. But in remarkable winters, the Seiije was
deeply frozen ; and the huge pieces of ice that floated
down the stream might be compared, by an Asiatic,
to the blocks of white marble which were extracted
326 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
from the quarries of Phrygia. The licentiousness
and corruption of Antioch recalled to the memory of
Julian the severe and simple manners of his beloved
Lutetia ; *^ where the amusements of the theatre were
unknown or despised. He indignantly contrasted the
effeminate Syrians with the brave and honest simplicity
of the GaulSj and almost forgave the intemperance
which was the only stain of the Celtic character. If
Julian could now revisit the capital of France, he
might converse with men of science and genius,
capable of understanding and of instructing a disciple
of the Greeks ; he might excuse the lively and graceful
follies of a nation whose martial spirit has never been
enervated by the indulgence of luxury ; and he must
applaud the perfection of that inestimable art which
softens and refines and embellishes the intercourse
of social life.
49 T}jP (pCKrjv AevKCTiav. Julian, in Misopogon. p. 340.
Leucetia, or Lutetia, was the ancient name of the city which,
according to the fashion of the fourth century, assumed the
territorial appellation of Parisii.
306 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 327
CHAPTER XX
THE SIOTIVES^ PROGRESS^ AND EFFECTS OF THE CONVERSION
OF CONSTANTINE LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT AND CON-
STITUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN OR CATHOLIC CHURCH
The public establishment of Christianity may be con-
sidered as one of those important and domestic revolu-
tions which excite the most lively curiosity and afford
the most valuable instruction. The victories and the
civil policy of Constantine no longer influence the state
of Europe ; but a considerable portion of the globe
still retains the impression which it received from the
conversion of that monarch ; and the ecclesiastical in-
stitutions of his reign are still connected^ by an indis-
soluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the
interests of the present generation.
In the consideration of a subject which may be
examined with impartiality, but cannot be viewed with
indifference, a difficulty immediately arises of a very
unexpected nature ; that of ascertaining the real and
precise date of the conversion of Constantine. The
eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of his court, seems
impatient^ to proclaim to the world the glorious
example of the sovereign of Gaul ; who, in the first
moments of his reign, acknowledged and adored the
1 The date of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius has been
accurately discussed, difficulties have been started, solutions pro-
posed, and an expedient imagined of two original editions : the
former published during the persecution of Diocletian, the latter
under that of Licinius. For my own part, I am ahnost con-
vinced that Lactantius dedicated his Institutions to the sovereign
of Gaul, at a time when Galerius, Maximin, and even Licinius,
persecuted the Christians ; that is, between the years 306 and
311.
328 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
majesty of the true and only God.^ The learned
Eusebius has ascribed the faith of Constantine to tlie
miraculous sign which was displayed in the heavens
whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition.
The historian Zosimus maliciously asserts that the
emperor had imbraed his hands in the blood of his
eldest son, before he publicly renounced the gods of
Rome and of his ancestors. The perplexity produced
by these discordant authorities is derived from the
behaviour of Constantine himself. According to the
strictness of ecclesiastical language, the first of the
Christian emperors was unworthy of that name, till the
moment of his death ; since it was only during his last
illness that he received, as a catechumen, the imposition
of hands,^ and was afterwards admitted, by the initiatory
rites of baptism, into the number of the faithful.* The
Christianity of Constantine must be allowed in a much
more vague and qualified sense ; and the nicest accuracy
is required in tracing the slow and almost imperceptible
gradations by which the monarch declared himself the
protector, and at length the proselyte, of the church.
2 Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. i, vii. 27. The first and most
important of these passages is indeed wanting iu twenty-eight
manuscripts ; but it is found in nineteen. If we weigh the com-
parative value of those manuscripts, one of 900 years old, in the
king of France's library, may be alleged in its favour ; but the
passage is omitted in the correct manuscript of Bologna, which
the P. de Montfaucon ascribes to the sixth or seventh century.
The taste of most of the editors has felt the genuine style of
Lactantius.
8 That rite was always used in making a catechumen and Con-
stantine received it for the first time immediately before his
baptism and death. From the connection of these two facts,
Valesius has drawn the conclusion, which is reluctantly ad-
mitted by Tillemont.
^ The legend of Constantine's baptism at Rome, thirteen
years before his death, was invented in the eighth century, as a
proper motive for his donation. Such has been the gradual
progress of knowledge that a story of which Cardinal Baron ius
(Annal. Ecclesiast. A.D. 324, No. 43-49) declared hirnself the
unblushing advocate is now feebly supported, even within the
verge of the Vatican.
306-837 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 329
It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits and
prejudices of his education^ to acknowledge the divine
power of Christ, and to understand that the truth of
his revelation was incompatible with the worship of
the g-ods. The obstacles which he had probably ex-
perienced in his own mind instructed him to proceed
with caution in the momentous change of a national
religion ; and he insensibly discovered his new opinions,
as far as he could enforce them with safety and with
effect. During the whole course of his reign, the.
stream of Christianity flowed with a gentle, though
accelerated, motion : but its general direction was
sometimes checked, and sometimes diverted, by the
accidental circumstances of the times, and by the
prudence, or possibly by the caprice, of the monarch.
His ministers were permitted to signify the intentions
of their master in the various language that was best
adapted to their respective principles ; and he artfully
balanced the hopes and fears of his subjects by publish-
ing in the same year two edicts ; the first of which
enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday,^ and the
second directed the regular consultation of the
Aruspices.^ While this important revolution yet re-
mained in suspense, the Christians and the Pagans
watched the conduct of their sovereign with the same
anxiety, but with very opposite sentiments. The former
were prompted by every motive of zeal, as well as
vanity, to exaggerate the marks of his favour, and the
evidences of his faith. The latter, till their just ap-
prehensions were changed into despair and resentment,
attempted to conceal from the world, and from them-
selves, that the gods of Rome could no longer reckon
the emperor in the number of their votaries. The
same passions and prejudices have engaged the partial
writers of the times to connect the public profession
» Constantine styles the Lord's day dies soils, a name which
could not offend the ears of his Pagan subjects,
•■^ Godefroy, in the character of a commentator, endeavours
to excuse Constantine ; but the more zealous Baronius cen-
sures his profane conduct with truth and asperity.
VOL. II. L 2
330 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
of Christianity with the most glorious or the most
ignominious aera of the reign of Constantine.
Whatever symptoms of Christian piety might tran-
spire in the discourses or actions of Constantine_, he
persevered till he was near forty years of age in the
practice of the established religion ; " and the same
conduct_, which in the court of Nicomedia might be
imputed to his fear, could be ascribed only to the
inclination or policy of the sovereign of Gaul. His
liberality restored and enriched the temples of the
gods : the medals which issued from his Imperial mint
are impressed with the figures and attributes of Jupiter
and Apollo, of Mars and Hercules ; and his filial piety
increased the council of Olympus by the solemn
apotheosis of his father Constantius.^ But the devotion
of Constantine was mvore peculiarly directed to the
genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman
mythology ; and he was pleased to be represented with
the symbols of the God of Light and Poetry. The
unerring shafts of that deity, the brightness of his
eyes, his laurel wreath, immortal beauty, and elegant
accomplishments, seem to point him out as the patron
of a young hero. The altars of Apollo were crowned
with the votive ofi^erings of Constantine ; and the
credulous multitude were taught to believe that the
emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes tho
visible majesty of their tutelar deity, and that, either
waking or in a vision, he was blessed with the auspicious
omens of a long and victorious reign. The Sun was
universally celebrated as the invincible guide and
protector of Constantine ; and the Pagans might
reasonably expect that the insulted god would pursue
7 Theodoret (1. i. c. i8) seems to insinuate that Helena gave
her son a Christian education ; but we may be assured, from
the superior authority of Eusebius (in Vit. Constant. 1. iii. c. 47),
that she herself was indebted to Constantine for the knowledge
of Christianity.
8 See the medals of Constantine in Ducange and Banduri.
As few cities had retained the privilege of coining, almost all
the medals of that age issued from the mint under the sanction
of the Imperial authority.
306-312 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 331
with unrelenting vengeance the impiety of his un-
grateful favourite.^
As long as Constantino exercised a limited sovereignty
over the provinces of Gaul, his Christian subjects were
protected by the authority, and perhaps by the laws,
of a prince who wisely left to the gods the care of
vindicating their own honour. If we may credit the
assertion of Constantine himself, he had been an
indignant spectator of the savage cruelties which were
inflicted^ by the hands of Roman soldiers, on those
citizens whose religion was their only crime. ^"^ In
the East and in the West, he had seen the different
etFects of severity and indulgence ; and, as the former
was rendered still more odious by the example of
Galerius, his implacable enemy, the latter was re-
commended to his imitation by the authority and
advice of a dying father. The son of Constantius
immediately suspended or repealed the edicts of per-
secution, and granted the free exercise of their
religious ceremonies to all those who had already
professed themselves members of the church. They
were soon encouraged to depend on the favour as
well as on the justice of their sovereign, who had
imbibed a secret and sincere reverence for the name
of Christ and for the God of the Christians.
About five months after the conquest of Italy, the
emperor made a solemn and authentic declaration of
his sentiments, by the celebrated edict of Milan, which
restored peace to the Catholic Church. In the personal
interview of the two western princes, Constantine,
by the ascendant of genius and power, obtained the
9 The panegyric of Eumenius (vii, inter Panegyr. Vet.), which
was pronounced a few months before the Italian war, abounds
with the most unexceptionable evidence of the Pagan super-
stition of Constantine, and of his particular veneration for Apolio,
or the Sun ; to which Julian alludes.
10 But it might easily be shown that the Greek translator has
improved the sense of the Latin original ; and the aged emperor
might recollect the persecution of Diocletian with a more lively
abhorrence than he had actually felt in the days of his youth
and Paganism.
332 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
ready concurrence of his colleague Licinius ; the union
of their names and authority disarmed the fury of
Maximin ; and_, after the death of the tyrant of the
East, the edict of Milan was received as a general
and fundamental law of the Roman world. The
wisdom of the emperors provided for the restitution
of all the civil and religious rights of which the
Christians had been so unjustly deprived. It was
enacted that the places of worship, and public lands,
which had been confiscated, should be restored to the
church, without dispute, without delay, and without
expense : and this severe injunction was accompanied
with a gracious promise that, if any of the purchasers
had paid a fair and adequate price, they should be
indemnified from the Imperial treasury. The salutary
regulations which guard the future tranquillity of the
faithful are framed on the principles of enlarged and
equal toleration ; and such an equality must have
been interpreted by a recent sect as an advantageous
and honourable distinction. The two emperors pro-
claim to the world that they have granted a free and
absolute power to the Christians, and to all others,
of following the religion which each individual thinks
proper to prefer, to wliich he has addicted his mind,
and which he may deem the best adapted to his own
use. They carefully explain every ambiguous word,
remove every exception, and exact from the governors
of the provinces a strict obedience to the true and
simple meaning of an edict which was designed to
establish and secure, without any limitation, the claims
of religious liberty. They condescend to assign two
weighty reasons which have induced them to allow
this universal toleration : the humane intention of
consulting the peace and happiness of their people ;
and the pious hope that, by such a conduct, they shall
appease and propitiate the Deity, whose seat is in heaven.
They gratefully acknowledge the many signal proofa
which they have received of the divine favour ; and
they trust that the same Providence will for ever
continue to protect the prosperity of the prince and
313 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 333
people. From these vague and indefinite expressions
of pietYj three suppositions may be deduced^ of a
different, but not of an incompatible, nature. The
mind of Constantiue might fluctuate between the
Pagan and the Christian religions. According to the
loose and complying notions of Polytheism, he might
acknowledge the God of the Christians as one of the
many deities who composed the hierarchy of heaven.
Or perhaps he might embrace the philosophic and
pleasing idea that, notwithstanding the variety of
names, of rites, and of opinions, all the sects and all
the nations of mankind are united in the worship of
the common Father and Creator of the universe.
But the counsels of princes are more frequently
influenced by vieAvs of temporal advantage than by
considerations of abstract and speculative truth. ITie
partial and increasing favour of Constantine may
naturally be referred to the esteem which he enter-
tained for the moral character of the Christians ; and
to a persuasion that the propagation of the gospel
would inculcate the practice of private and public
virtue. Whatever latitude an absolute monarch may
assume in his own conduct, whatever indulgence he
may claim for his own passions, it is undoubtedly his
interest that all his subjects should respect the natural
and civil obligations of society. But the operation of
the wisest laws is imperfect and precarious. They
seldom inspire virtue, they cannot always restrain vice.
Their power is insufficient to prohibit all that they
condemn, nor can they always punish the actions
which they prohibit. The legislators of antiquity had
summoned to their aid the powers of education and of
opinion. But every principle which had once main-
tained the vigour and purity of Rome and Sparta was
long since extinguished in a declining and despotic
empire. Philosophy still exercised her temperate sway
over the human mind, but the cause of virtue derived
very feeble support from the influence of the Pagan
superstition. Under these discouraging circumstances,
a prudent magistrate might observe with pleasure the
334 THE DECLINE AND FALL
progress of a religion, which diffused among the people
a pure, benevolent_, and universal system of ethics,
adapted to every duty and every condition of life ;
recommended as the will and reason of the Supreme
Deity, and enforced by the sanction of eternal rewards
or punishments. The experience of Greek and Roman
history could not inform the world how far the system
of national manners might be reformed and improved
by the precepts of a divine revelation ; and Constantine
might listen with some confidence to the flattering,
and indeed reasonable, assurances of Lactantius. The
eloquent apologist seemed firmly to expect, and almost
ventured to promise, that the establishment of Chris-
tianity would restore the innocence and felicity of the
primitive age ; that the worship of the true God would
extinguish war and dissention among those who mutu-
ally considered themselves as the children of a common
parent ; that every impure desire, every angry or
selfish passion, would be restrained by the knowledge
of the gospel ; and that the magistrates might sheathe
the sword of justice among a people who would be
universally actuated by the sentiments of truth and
piety, of equity and moderation, of harmony and
universal love.
The passive and unresisting obedience which bows
under the yoke of authority, or even of oppression,
must have appeared, in the eyes of an absolute monarch,
the most conspicuous and useful of the evangelic virtues.
The primitive Christians derived the institution of
civil government, not from the consent of the people,
but from the decrees of heaven. The reigning emperor,
though he had usurped the sceptre by treason and
murder, immediately assumed the sacred character of
vicegerent of the Deity. To the Deity alone he was
accountable for the abuse of his power ; and his sub-
jects were iudissolubly bound, by their oath of fidelity,
to a tyrant who had violated every law of nature and
society. The humble Christians were sent into the
world as sheep among wolves ; and, since they were
not permitted to employ force, even in the defence of
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 335
tlieir religion, they should be still more criminal if
they were tempted to shed the blood of their fellow-
creatures in disputing the vain privileges, or the
sordid possessions, of this transitory life. Faithful to
the doctrine of the apostle who in the reign of Nero
had preached the duty of unconditional submission, the
Christians of the three first centuries preserved their
conscience pure and innocent of the guilt of secret
conspiracy or open rebellion. While they experienced
the rigour of persecution, they were never provoked
either to meet their tyrants in the field or indignantly to
withdraw themselves into some remote and sequestered
corner of the globe. The Protestants of France, of
Germany, and of Britain, who asserted with such
intrepid courage their civil and religious freedom,
have been insulted by the invidious comparison be-
tween the conduct of the primitive and of the reformed
Christians. Perhaps, instead of censure, some applause
may be due to the superior sense and spirit of our
ancestors, who had convinced themselves that religion
cannot abolish the unalienable rights of human nature.
Perhaps the patience of the primitive church may be
ascribed to its weakness, as well as to its virtue. A
sect of unwarlike plebeians, without leaders, without
arms, without fortifications, must have encountered
inevitable destruction in a rash and fruitless resistance
to the master of the Roman legions. But the Chris-
tians, when they deprecated the wrath of Diocletian,
or solicited the favour of Constantine, could allege,
with truth and confidence, that they held the principle
of passive obedience, and that, in the space of three
centuries, their conduct had always been conformable
to their principles. They might add that the throne
of the emperors would be established on a fixed and
permanent basis, if all their subjects, embracing the
Christian doctrine, should learn to suffer and to obey.
In the general order of Providence, princes and
tyrants are considered as the ministers of Heaven,
appointed to rule or to chastise the nations of the
earth. But sacred history affords many illustrious
336 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
examples of the more immediate interposition of the
Deity in the g-overnment of his chosen people. The
sceptre and the sword were committed to the hands
of Moses, of Joshua, of Gideon, of David, of the
Maccabees ; the virtues of those heroes were the motive
or the effect of the divine favour, the success of their
arms was destined to achieve the deliverance or the
triumph of the church. If the judges of Israel were
occasional and temporary magistrates, the kings. of
Judah derived from the royal unction of their great
ancestor an hereditary and indefeasible right, which
could not be forfeited by their own vices, nor recalled
by the caprice of their subjects. The same extra-
ordinary providence, which was no longer confined to
the Jewish people, might elect Constantino and his
family as the protectors of the Christian world ; and
the devout Lactantius announces, in a prophetic tone,
the future glories of his long and universal reign. ^^
Galerius and Maxim in, Maxentius and Licinius, were
the rivals who shared with the favourite of Heaven the
provinces of the empire. The tragic deaths of Galerius
and Maximin soon gratified the resentment, and ful-
filled the sanguine expectations of the Christians.
Tlie success of Constantine against Maxentius and
Licinius removed the two formidable competitors who
still opposed the triumph of the second David, and his
cause might seem to claim the peculiar interposition
of Providence. The character of the Roman tyrant
disgraced the purple and human nature ; and, though
the Christians might enjoy his precarious favour, they
were exposed, with the rest of his subjects, to the
effects of his wanton and capricious cruelty. The
conduct of Licinius soon betrayed the reluctance with
which he had consented to the wise and humane regu-
lations of the edict of Milan. The convocation of
provincial synods was prohibited in his dominions ; his
Chnstian officers were ignominiously dismissed ; and,
u Eusebius, in the course of his history, his life, and his
oration, repeatedly inculcates the divine right of Constantine to
the empire.
I
324 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 337
if he avoided tie guilt, or rather danger, of a general
persecution, his partial oppressions were rendered still
more odious by the violation of a solemn and voluntary
engagement. While the East, according to the lively
expression of Eusebius, was involved in the shades of
infernal darkness, the auspicious rays of celestial light
warmed and illuminated the provinces of the West.
The piety of Constautine was admitted as an unex-
ceptionable proof of the justice of his arms ; and his
use of victory contirmed the opinion of the Christians,
that their hero was inspired, and conducted by the
Lord of Hosts. The conquest of Italy produced a
general edict of toleration : and, as soon as the defeat
of Licinius had invested Constantine with the sole
dominion of the Roman world, he immediately, by
circular letters, exhorted all his subjects to imitate,
without delay, the example of their sovereign, and to
embrace the divine truth of Christianity.
The assurance that the elevation of Constantine was
intimately connected with the designs of Providence
instilled into the minds of the Christians two opinions,
which, by very different means, assisted the accomplish-
ment of the prophecy. Their warm and active loyalty
exhausted in his favour every resource of human
industry ; and they confidently expected that their
strenuous efforts would be seconded by some divine
and miraculous aid. The enemies of Constantine have
imputed to interested motives the alliance which he
insensibly contracted with the Catholic church, and
which apparently contributed to the success of his
ambition. In the beginning of the fourth century,
the Christians still bore a very inadequate proportion
to the inhabitants of the empire ; but among a de-
generate people, who viewed the change of masters
with the indifference of slaves, the spirit and union of
a religious party might assist the popular leader to
whose service, from a principle of conscience, they had
devoted their lives and fortunes. ^2 xhe example of
12 In the beginning of the last century, the Papists of Eng-
land were only a thirtieth, and the Protestants of France only
338 THE DECLINE AND FALL
his father had instructed Constantine to esteem and
to reward the merit of the Christians ; and in the dis-
tribution of public offices_, he had the advantage of
strengthening his government, by the choice of ministers
or generals in whose fidelity he could repose a just
and unreserved confidence. By the influence of these
dignified missionaries, the proselytes of the new faith
must have multiplied in the court and army ; the
Barbarians of Germany, who filled the ranks of the
legions, were of a careless temper, which acquiesced
without I'esistance in the religion of their commander ;
and, when they passed the Alps, it may fairly be pre-
sumed that a great number of the soldiers had already
consecrated their swords to the service of Christ and
of Constantine.^^ The habits of mankind, and the
interest of religion, gradually abated the horror of war
and bloodshed, which had so long prevailed among the
Christians ; and, in the councils which were assembled
under the gracious protection of Constantine, the
authority of the bishops was seasonably employed to
ratify the obligation of the military oath, and to inflict
the penalty of excommunication on those soldiers who
tlirew away their arms during the peace of the church.
While Constantine, in his own dominions, increased
the number and zeal of his faithful adherents, he could
depend on the support of a powerful faction in those
provinces which were still possessed or usurped by his
rivals. A secret disafl"ection was diff"used among the
Christian subjects of Maxentius and Licinius ; and the
resentment which the latter did not attempt to conceal
served only to engage them still more deeply in the
interest of his competitor. The regular correspond-
ence which connected the bishops of the most distant
provinces enabled them freely to communicate their
a fifteenth, part of the respective nations, to whom their spirit
and power were a constant object of apprehension.
13 This careless temper of the Germans appears almost
uniformly in the history of the conversion of each of the tribes.
The legions of Constantine were recruited with Germans ; and
the court even of his father had been filled with Christians.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 339
wishes and their designs, and to transmit without
danger any useful intelligence, or any pious contri-
butions, which might promote the service of Constan-
tine, who publicly declared that he had taken up arms
for the deliverance of the church.^'*
The enthusiasm which inspired the troops, and
perhaps the emperor himself, had sharpened their
swords, while it satisfied their conscience. They
marched to battle with the full assurance that the
same God, who had formerly opened a passage to the
Israelites through the waters of Jordan, and had
tlirown down the walls of Jericho at the sound of the
trumpets of Joshua, would display his visible majesty
and power in the victory of Constantine. The evidence
of ecclesiastical history is prepared to affirm that their
expectations were justified by the conspicuous miracle
to which the conversion of the first Christian emperor has
been almost unanimously ascribed. Tlie real or imaginary
cause of so impoi-tant an event deserves and demands
the attention of posterity ; and I shall endeavour to
form a just estimate of the famous vision of Constantine,
by a distinct consideration of the standard, the dream,
and the celestial sign ; by separating the historical, the
natural, and the marvellous parts of this extraordinary
story, which, in the composition of a specious argument,
liave been artfully confounded in one splendid and
brittle mass.
I. An instrument of the tortures which were inflicted
only on slaves and strangers became an object of
horror in the eyes of a Roman citizen ; and the ideas
of guilt, of pain, and of ignominy were closely united
with the idea of the cross. ^^ The piety rather than
!■* Eusebius always considers the second civil war against
Licinius as a sort of religious crusade. At the invitation of the
tyrant, some Christian officers had resumed their zones ; or, in
other words, had returned to the military service. Their con-
duct was afterwards censured by the 12th canon of the Council
of Nice ; if this particular application may be received, instead of
the loose and general sense of the Greek interpreters, Balsamon,
Zonaras, and Alexis Aristenus.
^5 The Christian writers, Justin, Minucius Felix, TertulUan,
340 THE DECLINE AND FALL
the humanity of Constantine soon abolished in his
dominions the punishment which the Saviour of man-
kind had condescended to suffer ; ^^ but the emperor
had already learned to despise the prejudices of his
education, and of his people, before he could erect
in the midst of Rome his own statue, bearing a cross
in its right hand, with an inscription which referred
the victory of his arms, and the deliverance of Rome,
to the virtue of that salutary sign, the true symbol
of force and courage. ^^ The same symbol sanctified
the arms of the soldiers of Constantine ; the cross
glittered on their helmets, was engraved on their
shields, was interwoven into tlieir banners ; and the
consecrated emblems which adorned the person of the
emperor himself were distinguished only by richer
materials and more exquisite workmanship. But the
principal standard which displayed the triumph of the
cross was styled the Labarum,^^ an obscure though
celebrated name, which has been vainly derived from
almost all the languages of the world. It is described
as a long pike intersected by a transversal beam. The
silken veil which hung down from the beam was
Jerora, and Maximus of Turin, have investigated with tolerable
success the figure or likeness of a cross in almost every object
of nature or art ; in the intersection of the meridian and equator,
the human face, a bird flying, a man swimming, a mast and
yard, a plough, a standard, &c. &c. &c.
16 See Aurelius Victor, who considers this law as one of the
examples of Constantine's piety. An edict so honourable to
Christianity deserved a place in the Theodosian Code, instead
of the indirect mention of it, which seems to result from the
comparison of the vth and xviiith titles of the ixth book.
17 The statue, or at least the cross and inscription, may be
ascribed with more probability to the second, or even the third,
visit of Constantine to Rome. Immediately after the defeat of
Maxentius, the minds of the senate and people were scarcely
ripe for this public monument.
1*^ The derivation and meaning of the word Labarum or
Laborum, which is employed by Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose,
Prudentius, &c. still remain totally unknown ; in spite of the
efforts of the critics, who have ineffectually tortured the Latin,
Greek, Spanish, Celtic, Teutonic, lUyric, Armenian, &c, in search
of an etymology.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 341
curiously enwrought with the images of the reign-
ing monarch and his children. The summit of the
pike supported a crown of gold which inclosed the
mysterious monogram, at once expressive of the figure
of the cross and the initial letters of the name of
Christ.^^ The safety of the labarum was entrusted
to fifty guards, of approved valour and fidelity ; their
station was marked by honours and emoluments ; and
some fortunate accidents soon introduced an opinion
that, as long as the guards of the labarum were
engaged in the execution of their office, they were
secure and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy.
In the second civil war Licinius felt and dreaded the
power of this consecrated banner, the sight of which,
in the distress of battle, animated the soldiers of
Constantine with an invincible enthusiasm, and scat-
tered terror and dismay through the ranks of the
adverse legions.-'^ The Christian emperors, who re-
spected the example of Constantine, displayed in aU
their military expeditions the standard of the cross ;
but, when the degenerate successors of Theodosius
had ceased to appear in person at the head of their
armies, the labarum was deposited as a venerable but
useless relic in the palace of Constantinople. ^^ Its
honours are still preserved on the medals of the
19 Cuper (ad. M. P. in edit. Lactam, torn, ii. p. 500) and
Baronius (a.d. 312, No. 25) have engraved from ancient
monuments several specimens (as thus ^ or <B ) of these
monograms, which became extremely fashionable in the Chris-
tian world.
20 He introduces the Labarum before "the Italian expedition ;
but his narrative seems to indicate that it was never shown at
the head of an army, till Constantine, above ten years after-
wards, declared himself the enemy of Licinius and the deliverer
of the church.
21 Theophanes lived towards the end of the eighth century,
almost five hundred years after Constantine. The modern
Greeks were not inclined to display in the field the standard of
the empire and of Christianity ; and, though they depended on
every superstitious hope of defence, the promise of victory would
have appeared too bold a fiction.
342 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Flavian family. Their grateful devotion has placed
the monogram of Christ in the midst of the ensigns
of Rome. The solemn epithets of, safety of the re-
public, glory of the army, restoration of public happi-
ness, are equally applied to the religious and military
trophies ; and there is still extant a medal of the
emperor Constantius, where the standard of the
labarum is accompanied with these memorable words,
By this sign thou shalt conquer.
IL In all occasions of danger or distress, it was the
practice of the primitive Christians to fortify their
minds and bodies by the sign of the cross, which they
used, in all their ecclesiastical rites, in all the daily
occurrences of life, as an infallible preservative against
every species of spiritual or temporal evil.^^ 'j^g
authority of the church might alone have had suf-
ficient weight to justify the devotion of Constantine,
who, in the same prudent and gradual progress,
acknowledged the truth, and assumed the symbol, of
Christianity. But the testimony of a contemporary
writer, who in a former treatise has avenged the cause
of religion, bestows on the piety of the emperor a
more awful and sublime character. He affirms, with
the most perfect confidence, that, in the night which
preceded the last battle against Maxentius, Constantine
was admonished in a dream to inscribe the shields of
his soldiers with the celestial sign of God, the sacred
monogram of the name of Christ ; that he executed
the commands of heaven ; and that his valour and
obedience were rewarded by the decisive victory
of the Milvian Bridge. Some considerations might
perhaps incline a sceptical mind to suspect the judg-
ment or the veracity of the rhetorician, whose pen.
either from zeal or interest, was devoted to the cause
of the prevailing faction.-^ He appears to have pub-
22 The learned Jesuit Petavius (Dogmata Theolog. 1. xv,
c. 9, lo) has collected many similar passages on the virtues of
the cross, which in the last age embarrassed our Protestant
disputants.
23 It is certain that this historical declamation was composed
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 343
lished his deaths of the persecutors at Nicomedia
about three years after the Roman victory ; but the
interval of a thousand miles^ and a thousand days,
will allow an ample latitude for the invention of
declaimers, the credulity of party, and the tacit appro-
bation of the emperor himself; who might listen
without indignation to a marvellous tale, which
exalted his fame and promoted his designs. In favour
of Licinius, who still dissembled his animosity to the
Christians, the same author has provided a similar
vision, of a form of prayer, which was communicated
by an angel, and repeated by the whole army before
they engaged the legions of the tyrant Maximin.
The frequent repetition of miracles serves to provoke,
where it does not subdue, the reason of mankind ; 2*
but, if the dream of Constantine is separately con-
sidered, it may be naturally explained either by the
policy or the enthusiasm of the emperor. Whilst his
anxiety for the approaching day, which must decide
the fate of the empire, v.as suspended by a short and
interrupted slumber, the venerable form of Christ,
and the well-known symbol of his religion, might
forcibly offer themselves to the active fancy of a prince
who reverenced the name, and had perhaps secretly
implored the power, of the God of the Christians.
and published while Licinius, sovereign of the East, still pre-
served the friendship of Constantine and of the Christians.
Every reader of taste must perceive that the style is of a very
different and inferior character to that of Lactantius ; and such
indeed is the judgment of Le Clerc and Lardner. Three argu-
ments from the title of the book, and from the names of Donatus
and Caecilius, are produced by the advocates for Lactantius.
Each of these proofs is singly weak and defective ; but their
concurrence has great weight. I have often fluctuated, and
shall tamely follow the Colbert MS. in calling the author (who-
ever he was) Cascilius.
24 There seems to be some reason in the observation of M.
de Voltaire (Oeuvres, t. xiv. p. 307), wh^ ascribes to the success
of Constantine the superior fame of his Labarum above the
angel of Licinius. Yet even this angel is favourably entertained
by Pagi, Tillemont, Fleury, &c. who are fond of increasing their
stock of miracles.
344 THE DECLINE AND FALL
As readily might a consummate statesman indulge
himself in the use of one of those military stratagems,
one of those pious frauds, which Philip and Sertorius
had employed with such art and effect. ^^ The praeter-
natural origin of dreams was universally admitted by
the nations of antiquity, and a considerable part of
the Gallic army was already prepared to place their
confidence in the salutary sign of the Christian religion.
The secret vision of Constantine could be disproved
only by the event ; and the intrepid hero who had
passed the Alps and the Apennine might view with
careless despair the consequences of a defeat under
the walls of Rome. The senate and people, exulting
in their own deliverance from an odious tyrant,
acknowledged that the victory of Constantine sur-
passed the powers of man, without daring to insinuate
that it had been obtained by the protection of the
Gods. The triumphal arch which was erected about
three years after the event proclaims, in ambiguous
language, that, by the greatness of his own mind and
by an instinct or impulse of the Divinity, he had saved
and avenged the Roman republic. The Pagan orator,
who had seized an earlier opportunity of celebrating
the virtues of the conqueror, supposes that he alone
enjoyed a secret and intimate commerce with the
Supreme Being, who delegated the care of mortals
to his subordinate deities ; and thus assigns a very
plausible reason why the subjects of Constantine should
not presume to embrace the new religion of their
sovereign.
25 Besides these well-known examples, ToUius (Preface to
Boileau's translation of Longinus) has discovered a vision of
Antigonus, who assured his troops that he had seen a pentagon
(the symbol of safety) with these words, " In this conquer."
But Tollius has most inexcusably omitted to produce his autho-
rity ; and his own character, literary as well as moral, is not free
from reproach. Without insisting on the silence of Diodorus,
Plutarch, Justin, &c. it may be observed that Polyaenus, who in
a separate chapter (1. iv. c. 6) has collected nineteen military
stratagems of Antigonus, is totally ignorant of this remarkable
vision.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 345
III. The philosopher, who with calm suspicion ex-
amines the dreams and omens, the miracles and pro-
digies, or profane or even of ecclesiastical history, will
probably conclude that, if the eyes of the spectators
have sometimes been deceived by fraud, the under-
standing of the readers has much more frequently been
insulted by fiction. Every event, or appearance, or
accident, which seems to deviate from the ordinary
course of nature, has been rashly ascribed to the im-
mediate action of the Deity ; and the astonished fancy
of the multitude has sometimes given shape and colour,
language and motion, to the fleeting but uncommon
meteors of the air. Nazarius and Eusebius are the
two most celebrated orators who, in studied panegyrics,
have laboured to exalt the glory of Constantino. Nine
years after the Roman victory, Nazarius -^ describes
an army of divine warriors, who seemed to faU
from the sky : he marks their beauty, their spirit,
their gigantic forms, the stream of light which beamed
from their celestial armour, their patience in suffering
themselves to be heard, as well as seen, by mortals ;
and their declaration that they were sent, that they
flew, to the assistance of the great Constantiue. For
the truth of this prodigy, the Pagan orator appeals to
the whole Gallic nation, in whose presence he was then
speaking ; and seems to hope that the ancient appari-
tions ^^ would now obtain credit from this recent and
public event. The Christian fable of Eusebius, which
in the space of twenty-six years might arise from the
original dream, is cast in a much more correct and
elegant mould. In one of the marches of Constantine,
he is reported to have seen with his own eyes the
luminous trophy of the cross, placed above the meri-
dian sun, and inscribed with the following words : By
26 It is unnecessary to name the moderns, whose undistin-
guishing and ravenous appetite has swallowed even the Pagan
bait of Nazarius.
27 The apparitions of Castor and Pollux, particularly to
announce the Macedonian victory, are attested by historians
and public monuments.
346 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
THIS CONQUER, This amazing object in the sky aston-
ished the whole army, as well as the emperor himself,
who was yet undetermined in the choice of a religion ;
but his astonishment was converted into faith by the
vision of the ensuing night. Christ appeared before
his eyes ; and, displaying the same celestial sign of the
cross, he directed Constantine to frame a similar
standard, and to march, with an assurance of victory,
against Maxentius and all his enemies. ^8 The learned
bishop of Cjfisarea appears to be sensible that the re-
cent discovery of this marvellous anecdote would excite
some surprise and distrust among the most pious of his
readers. Yet instead of ascertaining the precise cir-
cumstances of time and place, which always serve to
detect falsehood or establish truth ; ^ instead of col-
lecting and recording the evidence of so many living
witnesses, who must have been spectators of this stu-
pendous miracle ; ^^ Eusebius contents himself with
alleging a very singular testimony ; that of the de-
ceased Constantine, who, many years after the event,
in the freedom of conversation, had related to him this
extraordinary incident of his own life, and had attested
the truth of it by a solemn oath. The prudence and
gratitude of the learned prelate forbade him to suspect
the veracity of his victorious master ; but he plainly
intimates that, in a fact of such a nature, he should
have refused his assent to any meaner authority. This
motive of credibility could not survive the power of
the Flavian family ; and the celestial sign, which the
Infidels might afterwards deride, was disregarded by the
Christians of the age which immediately followed the
28 The silence of the same Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical
History, is deeply felt by those advocates for the miracle who
are not absolutely callous.
'^ The narrative of Constantine seems to indicate that he
saw the cross in the sky before he passed the Alps against
Maxentius. The scene has been fixed by provincial vanity at
Treves, Besan9on, &c.
30 The pious Tillemont rejects with a sigh the useful Acts of
Artemius, a veteran and a martyr, who attests as an eye-witness
the vision of Constantine.
838 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 347
conversion of Constantine.^^ But the Catholic Church,
both of the East and of the West, has adopted a pro-
digy, which favours, or seems to favour, the popular
worship of the cross. The vision of Constantine main-
tained an honourable place in the legend of super-
stition, till the bold and sagacious spirit of criticism
presumed to depreciate the triumph, and to arraign
the truth of the first Christian emperor. ^^^
The protestant and philosophic readers of the
present age will incline to believe that, in the account
of his own conversion Constantine attested a wilful
falsehood by a solemn and deliberate perjury. They
may not hesitate to pronounce that, in the choice of a
religion, his mind was determined only by a sense of
interest ; and that (according to the expression of a
profane poet) he used the altars of the church as a
convenient footstool to the throne of the empire. A
conclusion so harsh and so absolute is not, however,
warranted by our knowledge of human nature, of
Constantine, or of Christianity. In an age of religious
fervour, the most artful statesmen are observed to feel
some part of the enthusiasm which they inspire ; and
the most orthodox saints assume the dangerous privi-
lege of defending the cause of truth by the arms of
31 The advocates for the vision are unable to produce a single
testimony from the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries,
who, in their voluminous writings, repeatedly celebrate the
triumph of the church and of Constantine. As these venerable
men had not any dislike to a miracle, we may suspect (and the
suspicion is confirmed by the ignorance of Jerom) that they
were all unacquainted with the life of Constantine by Eusebius.
This tract was recovered by the diligence of those who trans-
lated or continued his Ecclesiastical History, and who have
represented in various colours the vision of the cross.
32 Godefroy was the first who, in the year 1643, expressed any
doubt of a miracle which had been supported with equal zeal by
Cardinal Baronius and the Centuriators of Magdeburg. Since
that time, many of the Protestant critics have inclined towards
doubt and disbelief. The objections are urged, with great
force, by M, Chauffepid, and, in the year 1774, a doctor of
Sorbonne, the Abbd du Voisin, published an Apology, which
deserves the praise of learning and moderation.
348 THE DECLINE AND FALL
deceit and falsehood. Personal interest is often the
standard of our belief, as well as of our practice ; and
the same motives of temporal advantage which might
influence the public conduct and professions of Con-
stautine would insensibly dispose his mind to embrace
a religion so propitious to his fame and fortune. His
vanity was gratified by the flattering assurance that he
had been chosen by Heaven to reign over the earth ;
success had justified his divine title to the throne,, and
that title was founded on the truth of the Christian
revelation. As real virtue is sometimes excited by un-
deserved applause, the specious piety of Constantine,
if at first it was only specious, might gradually, by
the influence of praise, of habit, and of example, be
matured into serious faith and fervent devotion. The
bishops and teachers of the new sect, whose dress and
manners had not qualified them for the residence of
a court, were admitted to the Imperial table ; they
accompanied the monarch in his expeditions ; and
the ascendant which one of them, an Egyptian or a
Spaniard,^^ acquired over his mind was imputed by the
Pagans to the efl^ect of magic. Lactantius, who has
adorned the precepts of the gospel with the eloquence
of Cicero,^ and Eusebius, who has consecrated the
learning and philosophy of the Greeks to the service
of religion,'^ were both received into the friendship
and familiarity of their sovereign : and those able
masters of controversy could patiently watch the soft
and yielding moments of persuasion, and dexterously
apply the arguments which were the best adapted to
^ This favourite was probably the great Osius, bishop of
Cordova, who preferred the pastoral care of the whole church
to the government of a particular diocese. His character is
magnificently, though concisely, expressed by Athanasius (torn. i.
p. 703). Osius was accused, perhaps unjustly, of retiring from
court with a very ample fortune.
** The Christianity of Lactantius was of a moral rather than
of a mysterious cast.
35 Fabricius, with his usual diligence, has collected a list
of between three and four hundred authors quoted in the
Evangelical Preparation of Eusebius.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 349
his character and understanding. ^TTiatever advan-
tages might be derived from the acquisition of an
Imperial proselyte, he was distinguished by the splen-
dour of his purple, rather than by the superiority of
wisdom or virtue, from the many thousands of his
subjects who had embraced the doctrines of Chris-
tianity. Nor can it be deemed incredible that the
mind of an unlettered soldier should have yielded to
the weight of evidence, which, in a more enlightened
age, has satisfied or subdued the reason of a Grotius,
a Pascal, or a Locke. In the midst of the incessant
labours of his great office, this soldier employed, or
aifected to employ, the hours of the night in the
diligent study of the Scriptures and the composition
of theological discourses ; which he afterwards pro-
nounced in the presence of a numerous and applaud-
ing audience. In a very long discourse, which is still
extant, the royal preacher expatiates on the various
proofs of religion ; but he dwells with peculiar com-
placency on the Sybilline yerses,^'^ and the fourth
eclogue of Virgil.^" Forty years before the birth of
Christ, the Mantuan bard, as if inspired by the celes-
tial muse of Isaiah, had celebrated, with all the pomp
of oriental metaphor, the return of the Virgin, the fall
of the serpent, the approaching birth of a god-like child,
the offspring of the great Jupiter, who should expiate
the guilt of human kind, and govern the peaceful uni-
verse with the virtues of his father ; the rise and appear-
ance of an heavenly race, a primitive nation throughout
the world : and the gradual restoration of the innocence
and felicity of the golden age. The poet was perhaps
unconscious of the secret sense and object of these
sublime predictions, which have been so unworthily
36 He chiefly depends on a mysterious acrostic, composed in
the sixth age after the Deluge by the Erythraean Sybil, and
translated by Cicero into Latin. The initial letters of the
thirty-four Greek verses form this prophetic sentence : Jesus
Christ, Son of God, Saviour of the World.
37 In his paraphrase of Virgil, the emperor has frequently
assisted and improved the literal sense of the Latin text.
350 THE DECLINE AND FALL
applied to the infant s;ou of a consul or a triumvir :^
but, if a more splendid, and indeed specious, interpre-
tation of the fourth eclogue contributed to the conver-
sion of the first Christian emperor, Virgil may deserve
to be ranked among the most successful missionaries
of the gospel.
Tlie awful mysteries of the Christian faith and
worship were concealed from the eyes of strangers, and
even of catechumens, with an affected secrecy, which
served to excite their wonder and curiosity. But the
severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the
bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same pru-
dence in favour of an Imperial proselyte, whom it
was so important to allure, by every gentle condescen-
sion, into the pale of the church ; and Coustantine
was permitted, at least by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy
most of the privileges, before he had contracted any of
the obligations, of a Christian. Insteadiof retiring from
the congregation when the voice of the deacon dis-
missed the profane multitude, he prayed with the
faithful, disputed with the bishops, preached on the
most sublime and intricate subjects of theology, cele-
brated with sacred rites the vigil of Easter, and publicly
declared himself, not only a partaker, but in some
measure a priest and hierophant of the Christian
mysteries. The pride of Constantine might assume,
and his services had deserved, some extraordinary
distinction : an ill-timed rigour might have blasted the
unripened fruits of his conversion ; and, if the doors of
the church had been strictly closed against a prince
who had deserted the altars of the gods, the master of
the empire would have been left destitute of any form
of religious worship. In his last visit to Rome, he
piously disclaimed and insulted the superstition of his
ancestors by refusing to lead the military procession of
the equestrian order and to offer the public vows to
the Jupiter of the Capitoline Hill. Many years before
38 The different claims of an elder and younger son of PoUio,
of Julia, of Drusus, of Marcellus, are found to be incompatible
with chronology, history, and the good sense of Virgil,
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 351
his baptism and death, Constantine had proclaimed to
the world that neither his person nor his image should
ever more be seen within the walls of an idolatrous
temple ; while he distributed through the provinces
a variety of medals and pictures, which represented
the emperor in an humble and suppliant posture of
Christian devotion.
The pride of Constantine, who refused the privileges
of a catechumen, cannot easily be explained or ex-
cused ; but the delay of his baptism may be justified
by the maxims and the practice of ecclesiastical anti-
quity. The sacrament of baptism ^^ was regularly ad-
ministered by the bishop himself, with his assistant
clergy, in the cathedral church of the diocese, during
the fifty days between the solemn festivals of Easter
and Pentecost ; and this holy term admitted a numerous
band of infants and adult persons into the bosom of
the church. The discretion of parents often suspended
the baptism of their children till they could under-
stand the obligations which they contracted ; the
severity of ancient bishops exacted from the new-
converts a noviciate of two or three years ; and the
catechumens themselves, from different motives of a
temporal or a spiritual nature, were seldom impatient
to assume the character of perfect and initiated Chris-
tians. The sacrament of baptism was supposed to con-
tain a full and absolute expiation of sin ; and the soul
was instantly restored to its original purity, and en-
titled to the promise of eternal salvation. Among the
prosehi:e5 of Christianity, there were many who judged
it imprudent to precipitate a salutary rite, which could
not be repeated ; to throw away an inestimable privi-
lege, which could never be recovered. By the delay of
their baptism, they could venture freely to indulge their
passions in the enjoyments of this world, while they still
39 One circumstance may be observed, in which the modern
churches have materially departed from the ancient custom.
The sacrament of baptism (even when it was administered to
infants) was immediately followed by confirmation and the
holv communion.
362 THE DECLINE AND FALL
retained in their own Lands the means of a sure and
easy absolution.'^ The sublime theory of the gospel had
made a much fainter impression on the heart than on the
understanding of Constantine himself. He pursued the
great object of his ambition through the dark and bloody
paths of war and policy ; aiid^ after the victory, he
abandoned himself, without moderation, to the abuse of
his fortune. Instead of asserting his just superiority
above the imperfect heroism and profane philosophy of
Trajan and the Antonnines, the mature age of Con-
stantine forfeited the reputation which he had acquired
in his youth. As he gradually advanced in the know-
ledge of truth, he proportionably declined in the
practice of virtue ; and the same year of his reign in
which he convened the council of Nice was polluted by
the execution, or rather murder, of his eldest son. Tliis
date is alone sufficient to refute the ignorant and
malicious suggestions of Zosimus,*^ who affirms that,
after the death of Crispus, the remorse of his father ac-
cepted from the ministers of Christianity the expiation
which he had vainly solicited from the Pagan Pontiffs.
At the time of the death of Crispus, the emperor could
*o The fathers, who censured this criminal delay, could not
deny the certain and victorious efficacy even of a deathbed
baptism. The ingenious rhetoric of Chrysostom could find
only three arguments against these prudent Christians, i.
That we should love and pursue virtue for her own sake, and
not merely for the reward. 2. That we may be surprised by
death without an opportunity of baptism. 3. That, although
we shall be placed in heaven, we shall only twinkle like little
stars, when compared to the suns of righteousness who have run
their appointed course with labour, with success, and with
glory. I believe that this delay of baptism, though attended
with the most pernicious consequences, was never condemned
by any general or provinical council, or by any public act or
declaration of the church. The zeal of the bishops was easily
kindled on much slighter occasions.
■1^ For this disingenuous falsehood he has deserved and ex-
perienced the harshest treatment from all the ecclesiastical
writers, except Cardinal Baronius (a.d. 324, No. 15-28), who
had occasion to employ the Infidel on a particular service
against the Arian Eusebius,
OF THE ROxMAN ExMPIRE 353
no longer hesitate in the choice of a religion ; he could
no long-er be ignorant that tlie church was possessed of
an infallible remedy, though he chose to defer the ap-
plication of it, till the approach of death had removed
the temptation and danger of a relapse. The bishops,
whom he summoned in his last illness to the palace of
Nicomedia, were edified by the fervour with wliich he
requested and received the sacrament of baptism, by
the solemn protestation that the remainder of his
life should be worthy of a disciple of Christ, and by
his humble refusal to wear the Imperial purple after he
had been clothed in the white garment of a neophyte.
Tlie example and reputation of Constantine seemed to
countenance the delay of baptism.*- Future tyrants
were encouraged to believe that the innocent blood
which they might shed in a long reign would instantly
be washed away in the waters of regeneration ; and the
abuse of religion dangerously undermined the founda-
tions of moral virtue.
The gratitude of the church has exalted the virtues
and excused the failings of a generous patron, who
seated Christianity on the throne of the Roman world ;
and the Greeks, who celebrate the festival of the Im-
perial saint, seldom mention the name of Constan-
tine without adding the title oi equal to the Apostles. ^^
Such a comparison, if it allude to the character of those
divine missionaries, must be imputed to the extra-
vagance of impious flattery. But, if the parallel is
confined to the extent and number of their evangelic
victories, the success of Constantine might perhaps
equal that of the Apostles themselves. By the edicts
of toleration he removed the temporal disadvantages
which had hitherto retarded the progress of Chris-
tianity ; and its active and numerous ministers received
a free permission, a liberal encouragement, to re-
42 The bishop of Caesarea supposes the salvation of Constan-
tine with the most perfect confidence.
^ The Greeks, the Russians, and, in the darker ages, the
Latins themselves have been desirous of placing Constantine in
the catalogue of saints.
VOL. 11. xc
364 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d
commend the salutary truths of revelation by every
argument which could affect the reason or piety of
mankind. The, exact balance of the two religion?-
continued but a moment ; and the piercing eye ot
ambition and avarice soon discovered that the profes-
sion of Christianity might contribute to the interest ot
the present, as well as of a future, life.*^ The hopes
of wealth and honours, the example of an emperor,
his exhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused con-
viction among the venal and obsequious crowds which
usually fill the apartments of a palace. The cities
which signalised a forward zeal by the voluntary de-
struction of their temples were distinguished by muni-
cipal privileges, and rewarded with popular donatives ;
and the new capital of the East gloried in the singular
advantage that Constantinople was never profaned by
the worship of idols. ^° As the lower ranks of society
are governed by imitation, the conversion of those
who possessed any eminence of birth, of power, or of
riches, was soon followed by dependent multitudes.*^
The salvation of the common people was purchased at
an easy rate, if it be true that, in one year twelve
thousand men were baptized at Rome, besides a pro-
portionable number of women and children ; and that
** See the third and fourth books of his hfe. He was ac-
customed to say that, whether Christ was preached in pretence
or in truth, he should still rejoice.
*5 M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. p, 374,
616) has defended, with strength and spirit, the virgin purity
of Constantinople against some malevolent insinuations of the
Pagan Zosimus.
^ The author of the Histoire Politique et Philosophique des
deux Indes (tom. i. p. 9) condemns a law of Constantine, which
gave freedom to all the slaves who should embrace Christianity.
The emperor did indeed publish a law which restrained the Jews
from circumcising, perhaps from keeping, any Christian slaves.
But this imperfect exception related only to the Jews ; and
the great body of slaves, who were the property of Christian
or Pagan masters, could not improve their temporal condition
by changing their religion. I am ignorant by what guides the
Abb6 Raynal was deceived ; as the total absence of quotations
is the unpardonable blemish of his entertaining history.
330 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 355
a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, had been
promised by the emperor to every convert. The
powerful influence of Constantiue was not circum-
scribed by the narrow limits of his life_, or of iiis
dominions. The education which he bestowed on his
sons and nephews secured to the empire a race of
princes whose faith was still more lively and sincere,
as they imbibed, in their earliest infancy, the spirit,
or at least the doctrine, of Christianity. War and
commerce had spread the knowledge of the gospel
beyond the confines of the Roniiiu provinces ; and the
Barbarians, who had disdained an humble and pro-
scribed sect, soon learned to esteem a religion which
had been so lately embraced by the greatest monarch
and the most civilised nation of the globe. The Goths
and Germans who enlisted under the standard of Rome
revered the cross which glittered at the head of the
legions, and their fierce countrymen received at the
same time the lessons of faith and of humanity. The
kings of Iberia and Armenia worshipped the God of
their protector ; and their subjects, who have invari-
ably preserved the name of Christians, soon formed
a sacred and perpetual connection with their Roman
brethren. The Christians of Persia were suspected.
in time of war, of preferring their religion to their
country ; but, as long as peace subsisted between the
two empires, the persecuting spirit of the Magi was
etfectually restrained by the interposition of Constan-
tine. The rays of the gospel illuminated the coast of
India. The colonies of Jews, who had penetrated
into Arabia and ^Ethiopia, opposed the progress of
Christianity ; but the labour of the missionaries was
in some measure facilitated by a previous knowledge
of the Mosaic revelation ; and Abyssinia still reveres
the memory of Frumentius, who, in the time of Con-
stantine, devoted his life to the conversion of those
sequestered regions. Under the reign of his son
ConstantiuSj Theophilus,"*'' who was himself of Indian
*7 Theophilus had been given in his infancy as a hostage by
his countrymen of the isle of Diva, and was educated by the
356 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.i>.
extraction^ was invested with the double character of
ambassador and bishop. He embarked on the Red
Sea with two hundred horses of the purest breed of
Cappadocia^ which were sent by the emperor to the
prince of the Sabaeans, or Homerites. Theophilus
was entrusted with many other useful or curious
presents, which might raise the admiration and con-
ciliate the friendship of the Barbarians ; and he suc-
cessfully employed several years in a pastoral visit to
the churches of the torrid zone.
The irresistible power of the Roman emperors was
displayed in the important and dangerous change of
the national religion. The terrors of a military force
silenced the faint and unsupported murmurs of the
Pagans, and there was reason to expect that the cheer-
ful submission of the Christian clergy, as well as
people, would be the result of conscience and gratitude.
It was long since established, as a fundamental maxim
of the Roman constitution, that every rank of citizens
were alike subject to the laws, and that the care of
religion was the right as well as duty of the civil
magistrate. Constantine and his successors could not
easily persuade themselves that they had forfeited,
by their conversion, any branch of the Imperial pre-
rogatives, or that they were incapable of giving laws
to a religion which they had protected and embraced.
The emperors still continued to exercise a supreme
jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical order ; and the
sixteenth book of the Theodosian code represents,
under a variety of titles, the authority which they
assumed in the government of the Catholic church.
But the distinction of the spiritual and temporal
powers, which had never been imposed on the free
spirit of Greece and Rome, was introduced and con-
firmed by the legal establishment of Christianity. The
office of supreme pontiff, which, from the time of
Xuma to that of Augustus, had always been exercised
Romans in learning and piety. The Maldives, of which Male,
or Diva, may be the capital, are a cluster of 190c or 2000 minute
islands in the Indian ocean.
312-4S8 OF THE ROMAN ExMPIRE 357
by oue of the most eminent of the senators, was at
length united to the Imperial dig-nity. The first
magistrate of the state^ as often as he was prompted
by superstition or policy^, performed with his own
hands* the sacerdotal functions ; nor was there any
order of priests^ either at Rome or in the provinces,
"Jrho claimed a more sacred character among men, or
a more intimate communication with the Gods. But
in the Christian church, which entrusts the service
of the altar to a perpetual succession of consecrated
ministers, the monarch, whose spiritual rank is less
honourable than that of the meanest deacon, was
seated below the rails of the sanctuary, and confounded
with the rest of the faithful multitude.*^ The emperor
might be saluted as the father of his people, but he
owed a filial duty and reverence to the fathers of the
church ; and the same marks of respect which Con-
stantine had paid to the persons of saints and confessors
were soon exacted by the pride of the episcopal order>^
A secret conflict between the civil and ecclesiastical
jurisdictions embarrassed the operations of the Roman
government ; and a pious emperor was alarmed by the
guilt and danger of touching with a profane hand the
ark of the covenant. The separation of men into the
two orders of the clergy and of the laity was, indeed,
familiar to many nations of antiquity ; and the priests
of India, of Persia, of Assyria, of Judea, of Ethiopia,
of Egypt, and of Gaul, derived from a celestial origin
the temporal power and possessions which they had
acquired. These venerable institutions had gradually
assimilated themselves to the manners and government
*^ Something of a contrary practice had insensibly prevailed
in the church of Constantinople ; but the rigid Ambrose com-
manded Theodosius to retire below the rails, and taught him
to know the difference between a king and a priest.
^ At the table of the emperor Maximus, Martin, bishop of
Tours, received the cup from an attendant, and gave it to the
presbyter his companion, before he allowed the^ emperor to
drink ; the empress waited on Martin at table. Yet it may be
doubted, whether these extraordinary compliments were paid
to the bishop or the saint.
358 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
of their respective countries ;^ but the opposition or
contempt of the civil power served to cement the
discipline of the primitive church. The Christians
had been obliged to elect their own magistrates, to
raise and distribute a peculiar revenue, and to regulate
the internal policy of their republic by a code of laws,
which were ratified by the consent of the people and
the practice of three hundred years. When Constan-
tino embraced the faith of the Christians, he seemed
to contract a perpetual alliance with a distinct and
independent society ; and the privileges granted or
confirmed by that emperor, or by his successors, were
accepted, not as the precarious favours of the court,
but as the just and unalienable rights of the ecclesias-
tical order.
The Catholic Church was administered by the spiritual
and legal jurisdiction of eighteen hundred bishops ; ^^
of whom one thousand were seated in the Greek, and
eight hundred in the Latin, provinces of the empire.
The extent and boundaries of their respective dioceses
had been variously and accidentally decided by the
zeal and success of the first missionaries, by the wishes
of the people, and by the propagation of the gospel.
Episcopal churches were closely planted along the
l)anks of the Nile, on the sea-coast of Africa, in the
proconsular Asia, and through the southern provinces
of Italy. The bishops of Gaul and Spain, of Thrace
and Pontus, reigned over an ample territory, and
delegated their rural suifragans to execute the sub-
ordinate duties of the pastoral office. A Christian
50 Plutarch, in his treatise of Isis and Osiris, informs us that
the kings of Egypt, who were not already priests, were initiated,
after their election, into the sacerdotal order.
51 The numbers are not ascertained by any ancient writer, or
original catalogue ; for the partial lists of the eastern churches
are comparatively modern. The patient diligei ce of Charles a
S*« Paolo, of Luke Holstenius, and of Bingham, has laboriously
investigated all the episcopal sees of the Catholic Church, which
was almost commensurate with the Roman empire. The ninth
book of the Christian Antiquities is a very accurate map of
ecclesiastical geography
312-438 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 359
diocese miffht be spread over a province or reduced to
a villa^re ; but all the bishops pos?;essed an equal and
indelible character : they all derived the same powers
and privileges from the apostles, from the people, and
from the laws. ^Vhile the civil and military professions
were separated by the policy of Constantine, a new
and perpetual order of ecclesiastical ministers, always
respectable, sometimes dangerous, was established in
the church and state. The important review of their
station and attributes may be distributed under the
following heads : I. Popular election. II. Ordination
of the clergy. III. Property. IV. Civil jurisdiction.
V. Spiritual censures. VI. Exercise of public oratory.
VII. Privilege of legislative assemblies.
I. The freedom of elections subsisted long after the
legal establishment of Christianity ; and the subjects
of Rome enjoyed in the church the privilege which
they had lost in the republic, of choosing the magis-
trates whom they were bound to obey. As soon as a
bishop had closed his eyes, the metropolitan issued a
commission to one of his suffragans to administer the
vacant see, and prepare, within a limited time, the
future election. The right of voting was vested in the
inferior clergy, who were best qualified to judge of the
merit of the candidates ; in the senators or nobles of
the city, all those who were distinguished by their
rank or property ; and finally in the whole body of the
people, who, on the appointed day, flocked in multi-
tudes from the most remote parts of the diocese, and
sometimes silenced, by their tumultuous acclamations,
the voice of reason and the laws of discipline. These
acclamations might accidentally fix on the head of the
most deserving competitor ; of some ancient presbyter,
some holy monk, or some la\Tnan, conspicuous for his
zeal and piety. But the episcopal chair was solicited,
especially in the great and opulent cities of the empire,
as a temporal rather than as a spiritual dignity. The
interested views, the selfish and angry passions, the
arts of perfidy and dissimulation, the secret cor-
ruption, the open and even bloody violence, which had
360 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
formerly disgraced the freedom of election in the
commonwealths of Greece and Rome, too often in-
fluenced the choice of the successors of the apostles.
While one of the candidates boasted the honours of his
family, a second allured his judges by the delicacies of
a plentiful table, and a third, more guilty than his
rivals, offered to share the plunder of the church among
the accomplices of his sacrilegious hopea.^^ The civil
as well as ecclesiastical laws attempted to exclude the
populace from this solemn and important transaction.
The canons of ancient discipline, by requiring several
episcopal qualifications of age, station, &c., restrained
in some measure the indiscriminate caprice of the
electors. The authority of the provincial bishops, who
were assembled in the vacant church to consecrate the
choice of the people, was interposed to moderate their
passions and to correct their mistakes. The bishops
could refuse to ordain an unworthy candidate, and the
rage of contending factions sometimes accepted their
impartial mediation. The submission, or the resistance,
of the clergy and people, on various occasions, afforded
different precedents, which were insensibly converted
into positive laws and provincial customs : ^^ but it
was everywhere admitted, as a fundamental maxim
of religious policy, that no bishop could be imposed
on an orthodox church without the consent of its
members. The emperors, as the guardians of the
public peace, and as the first citizens of Rome and
Constantinople, might effectually declare their wishes
in the choice of a primate : but those absolute mouarchs
respected the freedom of ecclesiastical elections ; and,
while they distributed and resumed the honours of the
state and army, they allowed eighteen hundred per-
petual magistrates to receive their important offices
w The epistles of Sidonius ApoUinaris (iv. 25, vii. 5, 9) exhibit
some of the scandals of the Gallican church ; and Gaul was less
polished and less corrupt than the East.
S3 A compromise was sometimes introduced by law or by
consent : either the bishops or the people chose one of the three
candidates who had been named by the other party.
312-438 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 361
from the free suffrages of the people. It was agreeable
to the dictates of justice, that these magistrates should
not desert an honourable station from which they could
not be removed ; but the wisdom of councils en-
deavoured, without much success, to enforce the
residence, and to prevent the translation, of bishops.
The discipline of the West was indeed less relaxed
than that of the East ; but the same passions which
made those regulations necessary rendered them
ineffectual. The reproaches which angry prelates have
so vehemently urged against each other serve only
to expose their common guilt and their mutual in-
discretion.
II. The bishops alone possessed the faculty of spiritual
generation ; and this extraordinary privilege might
compensate, in some degree, for the painful celibacy ^
which was imposed as a virtue, as a duty, and at length
as a positive obligation. The religions of antiquity,
which established a separate order of priests, dedicated
a holy race, a tribe or family, to the perpetual service
of the Gods. Such institutions were founded for pos-
session rather than conquest. The children of the
priests enjoyed, with proud and indolent security, their
sacred inheritance ; and the fiery spirit of enthusiasm
was abated by the cares, the pleasures, and the endear-
ments of domestic life. But the Christian sanctuary
was open to every ambitious candidate who aspired
to its heavenly promises or temporal possessions. The
office of priests, like that of soldiers or magistrates, was
strenuously exercised by those men whose temper and
abilities had prompted them to embrace the ecclesi-
astical profession, or who had been selected by a dis-
cerning bishop as the best qualified to promote the
glory and interest of the church. The bishops °° (till
w The celibacy of the clergy during the first five or six cen-
turies is a subject of discipline, and indeed of controversy, which
has been very diligently examined.
^ The subject of the vocation, ordination, obedience, &c. of
the clergy, is laboriously discussed by Thomassin (Discipline de
I'Eglise, torn. ii. pp. 1-83) and Bingham (in the fourth book of
vol.. II. M 2
362 THE DECLINE AND FALL ad.
the abuse was restrained by the prudence of the laws)
might constrain the reluctant, and protect the dis-
tressed ; and the imposition of hands for ever bestowed
some of the most valuable privileges of civil society.
The whole body of the Catholic clergy, more numerous
perhaps than the legions, was exempted by the em-
perors from all service, private or public, all municipal
offices, and all personal taxes and contributions which
pressed on their fellow-citizens with intolerable weight ;
and the duties of their holy profession were accepted
as a full discharge of their obligations to the republic.^
Each bishop acquired an absolute and indefeasible right
to the perpetual obedience of the clerk whom he or-
dained : the clergy of each episcopal church, with its
dependent parishes, formed a regular and permanent
society ; and the cathedrals of Constantinople ^^ and
Carthage maintained their peculiar establishment of
five hundred ecclesiastical ministers. Tlieir ranks °'
and numbers were insensibly multiplied by the super-
stition of the times, which introduced into the church
the splendid ceremonies of a Jewish or Pagan temple ;
and a long train of priests, deacons, sub-deacons,
his Antiquities, more especially the fourth, sixth, and seventh
chapters). When the brother of St. Jerom was ordained in
Cyprus, the deacons forcibly stopped his mouth, lest he should
make a solemn protestation which might invalidate the holy
rites.
5« The charter of immunities which the clergy obtained from
the Christian emperors is contained in the sixteenth book of the
Theodosian code ; and is illustrated with tolerable candour by
the learned Godefroy, whose mind was balanced by the opposite
prejudices of a civilian and a protestant.
57 Justinian. Novell, ciii. Sixty presbyters or priests, one
hundred deacons, forty deaconesses, ninety sub-deacons, one
hundred and ten readers, twenty-five chanters, and one hundred
door-keepers; in all, five hundred and twenty-five. This
moderate number was fixed by the emperor, to relieve the dis-
tress of the church, which had been involved in debt and usury
by the expense of a much higher establishment.
53 The number of seven orders has been fixed in the Latin
church, exclusive of the episcopal character. But the four
inferior ranks, the minor orders, are now reduced to empty and
useless titles.
312-438 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 363
acolytes, exorcists, readers, singers, and door-keepers,
contributed, in their respective stations, to swell the
pomp and harmony of religious worship. The clerical
name and privilege were extended to many pious fra-
ternities, who devoutly supported the ecclesiastical
throne. Six hundred parabolani, or adventurers, visited
the sick at Alexandria ; eleven hundred copiatce, or
gravediggers, buried the dead at Constantinople ; and
the swarms of monks, who arose from the Nile, over-
spread and darkened the face of the Christian world,
III. The edict of Milan secured the revenue as well
as the peace of the church. ^^ The Christians not only
recovered the lands and houses of which they had
been stripped by the persecuting laws of Diocletian,
but they acquired a perfect title to all the possessions
which they had hitherto enjoyed by the connivance of
the magistrate. As soon as Christianity became the
religion of the emperor and the empire, the national
clergy might claim a decent and honourable main-
tenance : and the payment of an annual tax might
have delivered the people from the more oppressive
tribute which superstition imposes on her votaries.
But, as the wants and expenses of the church increased
with her prosperity, the ecclesiastical order was still
supported and enriched by the voluntary oblations of
the faithful. Eight years after the edict of Milan,
Constantine granted to all his subjects the free and
universal permission of bequeathing their fortunes to
the holy Catholic church ; and their devout liberality,
which during their lives was checked by luxury or
avarice, flowed with a profuse stream at the hour of
their death. The wealthy Christians were encouraged
by the example of their sovereign. An absolute
monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be
59 The edict of Milan (de M. P. c. 48) acknowledges, by re-
citing, that there existed a species of landed property, ad jus
corporis eorura, id est, ecclesiarum non hominum singulorum
pertinentia. Such a solemn declaration of the supreme magis-
trate must have been received in all the tribunals as a maxin^
of civil law.
364 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
charitable without merit ; and Constantine too easily
believed that he should purchase the favour of Heaven,
if he maintained the idle at the expense of the in-
dustrious, and distributed among the saints the wealth
of the republic. The same messenger who carried
over to Africa the head of Maxentius might be en-
trusted with an epistle to Caecilian, bishop of Carthage.
The emperor acquaints him that the treasurers of the
province are directed to pay into his hands the sum of
three thousand folles^ or eighteen thousand pounds
sterling, and to obey his further requisitions for the
relief of the churches of Africa, Numidia, and Mauri-
tania. The liberality of Constantine increased in a
just proportion to his faith, and to his vices. He
assigned in each city a regular allowance of corn, to
supply the fund of ecclesiastical charity ; and the
persons of both sexes who embraced the monastic life
became the peculiar favourites of their sovereign.
The Christian temples of Antioch, Alexandria, Jeru-
salem, Constantinople, &c. displayed the ostentatious
piety of a prince ambitious, in a declining age, to
equal the perfect labours of antiquity.*'*^ The form of
these religious edifices was simple and oblong ; though
they might sometimes swell into the shape of a dome,
and sometimes branch into the figure of a cross. The
timbers were framed for the most part of cedars of
Libanus ; the roof was covered with tiles, perhaps of
gilt brass ; and the walls, the columns, the pavement,
were incrusted with variegated marbles. The most
precious ornaments of gold and silver, of silk and
gems, were profusely dedicated to the service of the
altar ; and this specious magnificence was supported
on the solid and perpetual basis of landed property.
60 Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. 1. x. c. 2, 3, 4. The bishop of
Caesarea, who studied and gratified the taste of his master, pro-
nounced in public an elaborate description of the church of
Jerusalem. It no longer exists, but he has inserted in the Life
of Constantine a short account of the architecture and orna-
ments. He likewise mentions the church of the holy Apostles
at Constantinople.
321 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 865
In the space of two centuries, from the reign of Con-
stantine to that of Justinian, the eighteen hundred
churches of the empire were enriched by the frequent
and unalienable gifts of the prince and people. An
annual income of six hundred pounds sterling may be
reasonably assigned to the bishops, who were placed at
an equal distance between riches and poverty,^^ but
the standard of their wealth insensibly rose with the
dignity and opulence of the cities which they governed.
An authentic but imperfect ^^ rent-roll specifies some
houses, shops, gardens, and farms, which belonged to
the three Basilicce of Rome, St. Peter, St. Paul, and
St. John Lateran, in the provinces of Italy, Africa,
and the East. They produce, besides a reserved rent
of oil, linen, paper, aromatics, &c. a clear annual
revenue of twenty-two thousand pieces of gold, or
twelve thousand pounds sterling. In the age of
Constantine and Justinian, the bishops no longer
possessed, perhaps they no longer deserved, the un-
suspecting confidence of their clergy and people. The
ecclesiastical revenues of each diocese were divided
into four parts ; for the respective uses, of the bishop
himself, of his inferior clergy, of the poor, and of the
public worship ; and the abuse of this sacred trust
was strictly and repeatedly checked.^ The patrimony
of the church was still subject to all the public imposi-
61 The revenue of the patriarchs, and the most wealthy .
bishops, is not expressed ; the highest annual valuation of a
bishopric is stated at thirty, and the lowest at two, pounds of
gold ; the medium might be taken at sixteen, but these valua-
tions are much below the real value.
62 Every record which comes from the Vatican is justly sus-
{jected ; yet these rent-rolls have an ancient and authentic
colour ; and it is at least evident, that, if forged, they were
forged in a period when/arwij, not kingdoms, were the objects
of papal avarice.
^ The legal division of the ecclesiastical revenue does not
appear to have been established in the time of Ambrose and
Chrysostom. Simplicius and Gelasius, who were bishops of
Rome in the latter part of the fifth century, mention it in their
pastoral letters as a general law, which was already confirmed
by the custom of Italy.
366 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
tions of the state. The clergy of Rome, Alexandria^
Thessalonica, &c. might solicit and obtain some partial
exemptions ; but the premature attempt of the great
council of Rimini, which aspired to universal freedom,
was successfully resisted by the son of Constantine.
IV, The Latin clergy, who erected their tribunal
on the ruins of the civil and common law, have
modestly accepted as the gift of Constantine^"* the
independent jurisdiction which was the fruit of time,
of accident, and of their own industry. But the
liberality of the Christian emperors had actually
endowed them with some legal prerogatives, which
secured and dignified the sacerdotal character.^'' 1,
Under a despotic government, the bishops alone
enjoyed and asserted the inestimable privilege of being
tried only by their peers ; and even in a capital ac-
cusation, a synod of their brethren were the sole judges
of their guilt or innocence. Such a tribunal, unless
it was inflamed by personal resentment or religious
discord, might be favourable, or even partial, to the
sacerdotal order : but Constantine was satisfied that
^ From Eusebius (in Vit. Constant. 1. iv. c. 27) and Sozomen
(1. i. c. 9) we are assured that the episcopal jurisdiction was
extended and confirmed by Constantine ; but the forgery of a
famous edict, which was never fairly inserted in the Theodosian
Code (see at the end, torn. vi. p. 303), is demonstrated byGode-
froy in the most satisfactory manner. It is strange that M. de
.Montesquieu, who was a lawyer as well as a philosopher, should
allege this edict of Constantine (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxix. c. 16)
without intimating any suspicion.
85 The subject of ecclesiastical jurisdiction has been involved
in a mist of passion, of prejudice, and of interest. Two of the
fairest books which have fallen into my hands are the Institutes
of Canon Law, by the Abb^ de Fleury, and the Civil History
of Naples, by Giannone. Their moderation was the effect of
situation as well as of temper. Fleury was a French ecclesi-
astic, who respected the authority of the parliaments ; Giannone
was an Italian lawyer, who dreaded the power of the church.
And here let me observe that, as the general propositions which
I advance are the result of many particular and imperfect facts,
I must either refer the reader to those modern authors who have
expressly treated the subject or swell these notes to a disagree-
able and disproportioned size.
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 867
secret impunity would be less pernicious than public
scandal: and. the Nicene council was edified by his
public declaration that, if he surprised a bishop in the
act of adultery_, he should cast his Imperial mantle
over the episcopal sinner. 2. The domestic jurisdiction
of the bishops was at once a privilejsre and a restraint
of the ecclesiastical order, whose civil causes were
decently withdrawn from the cognisance of a secular
judge. Their venial offences were not exposed to the
shame of a public trial or punishment ; and the gentle
correction, which the tenderness of youth may endure
from its parents or instructors, was inflicted by the
temperate severity of the bishops. But, if the clergy
were guilty of any crime which could not be sufficiently
expiated by their degradation from an honourable and
beneficial profession, the Roman magistrate drew the
sword of justice without any regard to ecclesiastical
immunities. 3. The arbitration of the bishops was
ratified by a positive law ; and the judges were in-
structed to execute, without appeal or delay, the
episcopal decrees, whose validity had hitherto depended
on the consent of the parties. The conversion of the
magistrates themselves, and of the whole empire,
might gradually remove the fears and scruples of the
Christians. But they still resorted to the tribunal of
the bishops, whose abilities and integrity they esteemed :
and the venerable Austin enjoyed the satisfaction of
complaining that his spiritual functions were perpetu-
ally interrupted by the invidious labour of deciding
the claim or the possession of silver and gold, of lands
and cattle. 4. The ancient privilege of sanctuary was
transferred to the Christian temples, and extended,
by the liberal piety of the younger Theodosius, to the
precincts of consecrated ground.^ The fugitive, and
^ In the works of Fra Paolo (torn. iv. p. 192, &c.) there is an
excellent discourse on the origin, claims, abuses, and limits of
sanctuaries. He justly observes that ancient Greece might per-
haps contain fifteen or twenty asyla or sanctuaries ; a number
which at present may be found in Italy within the walls of a
single city.
368 THE DECLINE AND FALL
even guilty, suppliants were permitted to implore either
the justice or the mercy of the Deity and his ministers.
The rash violence of despotism was suspended by the
mild interposition of the church ; and the lives or
fortunes of the most eminent subjects might be pro-
tected by the mediation of the bishop.
V. The bishop was the perpetual censor of the
morals of his people. The discipline of penance was
digested into a system of canonical jurisprudence/"
which accurately defined the duty of private or public
confession, the rules of evidence,, the degrees of guilt,
and the measure of punishment. It was impossible to
execute this spiritual censure, if the Christian pontiff,
who punished the obscure sins of the multitude, re-
spected the conspicuous vices and destructive crimes of
the magistrate ; but it was impossible to arraign the
conduct of the magistrate without controlling the ad-
ministration of civil government. Some considerations
of religion, or loyalty, or fear, protected the sacred
persons of the emperors from the zeal or resentment
of the bishops ; but they boldly censured and excom-
municated the subordinate tyrants who were not in-
vested with the majesty of the purple. St. Athanasius
excommunicated one of the ministers of Egypt ; and
the interdict which he pronounced, of fire and water,
was solemnly transmitted to the churches of Cappa-
docia.^ Under the reign of the younger Theodosius,
the polite and eloquent Synesius, one of the descend-
^ The penitential jurisprudence was continually improved by
the canons of the councils. But, as many cases were still left
to the discretion of the bishops, they occasionally published,
after the example of the Roman Praetor, the rules of discipline
which they proposed to observe. Among the canonical epistles
of the fourth century, those of Basil the Great were the most
celebrated.
68 Basil Epistol. xlvii. in Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 370
No. 91), who declares that he purposely relates it, to convince
governors that they were not exempt from a sentence of excom-
munication. In his opinion, even a royal head is not safe from
the thunders of the Vatican ; and the cardinal shows himself
much more coMiistent than the lawyers and theologians of the
Gallican church.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 369
ants of Hercules_,^ filled the episcopal seat of Ptolemais,
near the ruins of ancient Cyrene, and the philosophic
bishop supported, with dignity, the character which
he had assumed with reluctance.^° He vanquished
the monster of Libya, the president Andronicus, who
abused the authority of a venal office, invented ne\f
modes of rapine and torture, and aggravated the guilt
of oppression by that of sacrilege. After a fruitless
attempt to reclaim the haughty magistrate by mild
and religious admonition, Synesius proceeds to inflict
the last sentence of ecclesiastical justice,"^ which devotes
Andronicus, with his associates and their families, to
the abhorrence of earth and heaven. The impenitent
sinners, more cruel than Phalaris or Sennacherib,
more destructive than war, pestilence, or a cloud of
locusts, are deprived of the name and privileges of
Christians, of the participation of the sacraments, and
of the hope of Paradise. The bishop exhorts the
clergy, the magistrates, and the people, to renounce
all society with the enemies of Christ ; to exclude
them from their houses and tables ; and to refuse them
the common offices of life and the decent rites of
burial. The church of Ptolemais, obscure and con-
temptible as she may appear, addresses this declaration
to all her sister churches of the world ; and the profane
69 The long series of his ancestors, as high as Eurysthenes,
the first Doric king of Sparta, and the fifth in lineal descent
from Hercules, was inscribed in the public registers of Cyrene,
a Lacedaemonian colony. Such a poor and illustrious pedigree
of seventeen hundred years, without adding the royal ancestors
of Hercules, cannot be equalled in the history of mankind.
™ Synesius had previously represented his own disqualifica-
tions (Epist. cv. pp. 246-250), He loved profane studies and pro-
fane sports ; he was incapable of supporting a life of celibacy ;
he disbelieved the resurrection ; and he refusecMo preach fables
to the people, unless he might be permitted to philosophise
at home. Theophilus, primate of Egypt, who knew his merit,
accepted this extraordinary compromise.
"^1 The sentence of excommunication is expressed in a rhetorical
style. (Synesius, Epist. Iviii. pp. 201-203.) The method of in-
volving whole families, though somewhat iinjust, was improved
into national interdicts.
370 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
who reject her decrees will be involved in the gnilt and
punishment of Andronicus and his impious followers.
These spiritual terrors were enforced by a dexterous
application to the Byzantine court ; the trembling
president implored the mercy of the church ; and the
descendant of Hercules enjoyed the satisfaction of
raising a prostrate tyrant from the ground. Such
principles and such examples insensibly prepared the
triumph of the Roman pontiffs, who have trampled on
the necks of kings.
VI. Every popular government has experienced the
effects of rude or artificial eloquence. The coldest
nature is animated, the firmest reason is moved, by the
rapid communication of the prevailing impulse ; and
each hearer is affected by his own passions, and by
those of the surrounding multitude. The ruin of civil
liberty had silenced the demagogues of Athens and the
tribunes of Rome ; the custom of preaching, which
seems to constitute a considerable part of Christian
devotion, had not been introduced into the temples of
antiquity ; and the ears of monarchs were never in-
vaded by the harsh sound of popular eloquence, till
the pulpits of the empire were filled with sacred
orators who possessed some advantages unknown to
their profane predecessors. ^2 -pi^e arguments and
rhetoric of the tribune were instantly opposed, with
equal arms, by skilful and resolute antagonists ; and
the cause of truth and reason might derive an acci-
dental support from the conflict ot hostile passions.
The bishop, or some distinguished presbyter, to whom
1)6 cautiously delegated the powers of preaching,
harangued, without the danger of interruption or
reply, a submissive multitude, whose minds had been
prepared and, subdued by the awful ceremonies of
religion. Such was the strict subordination of the
Catholic church that the same concerted sounds might
issue at once from an hundred pulpits of Italy or
72 Preaching was considered as the most important office of
the bishop ; but this function was sometimes entrusted to such
presbyters as Chrysostom and Augustin.
314 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 371
EJ^pt^ if they were tuned ^^ by the master hand of the
Roman or Alexandrian primate. The design of this
institution was laudable^ but the fruits were not always
salutary. The preachers recommended the practice of
the social duties ; but they exalted the perfection of
monastic virtue, which is painful to the individual and
useless to mankind. Their charitable exhortations
betrayed a secret wish that the clergy might be per-
mitted to manage the wealth of the faithful for the
benefit of the poor. The most sublime representations
of the attributes and laws of the Deity were sullied by
an idle mixture of metaphysical subtleties, puerile rites,
and fictitious miracles : and they expatiated, with the
most fervent zeal, on the religious merit of hating the
adversaries, and obeying the ministers, of the church.
When the public peace was distracted by heresy and
schism, the sacred orators sounded the trumpet of
discord and perhaps of sedition. The understandings
of their congregations were perplexed by mystery,
their passions were inflamed by invectives : and they
rushed from the Christian temples of Antioch or
Alexandria, prepared either to suffer or to inflict
martyrdom. The corruption of taste and language is
strongly marked in the vehement declamations of the
Latin bishops ; but the compositions of Gregory and
Chrysostom have been compared with the most splendid
models of Attic, or at least of Asiatic, eloquence."*
VH. The representatives of the Christian republic
were regularly assembled in the spring and autumn of
each year : and these synods diffused the spirit of
ecclesiastical discipline and legislation through the
hundred and twenty provinces of the Roman world. ^^
'3 Queen Elizabeth used this expression, and practised this
art, whenever she wished to prepossess the minds of her people
in favour of any extraordinary measure of government. The
hostile effects of this music were apprehended by her successor,
and severely felt by his son. " Wlien pulpit, drum ecclesiastic."
"4 Those modest orators acknowledged that, as they were
destitute of the gift of miracles, they endeavoured to acquire
the arts of eloquence.
"5 The coimcil of Nice, in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh
372 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
The archbishop or metropolitan was empowered, by tHfe
laws, to summon the suffrajo;-an bishops of his province,
to revise their conduct, to vindicate their rights, to de-
clare their faith, and to examine the merit of the candi-
dates who were elected by the clergy and people to
supply the vacancies of the episcopal college. The
primates of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and
afterwards Constantinople, who exercised a more ample
jurisdiction, convened the numerous assembly of their
dependent bishops. But the convocation of great and
extraordinary synods was the prerogative of the emperor
alone. Whenever the emergencies of the church re-
quired this decisive measure, he despatched a per-
emptory summons to the bishops, or the deputies of
each province, with an order for the use of post-horses,
and a competent allowance for the expenses of their
journey. At an early period, when Constantino was
the protector, rather than the proselyte, of Christianity,
he referred the African controversy to the council of
Aries ; in which the bishops of York, of Treves, of
Milan, and of Carthage, met as friends and brethren,
to debate in their native tongue on the common interest
of the Latin or Western church. ^^ Eleven years after-
wards, a njore numerous and celebrated assembly wa?
convened at Nice in Bithynia, to extinguish, by their
final sentence, the subtle disputes which had arisen in
Egypt on the subject of the Trinity. Three hundred
and eighteen bishops obeyed the summons of their in-
dulgent master ; the ecclesiastics, of every rank and
sect and denomination, have been computed at two
thousand and forty-eight persons ; the Greeks appeared
in person ; and the consent of the Latins was expressed
canons, has made some fundamental regulations concerning
synods, metropolitans, and primates. The Nicene canons
have been variously tortured, abused, interpolated, or forged,
according to the interest of the clergy. The Suburbicarian
churches, assigned (by Rufinus) to the bishop of Rome, have
been made the subject of vehement controversy.
'6 We have only thirty-three or forty-seven episcopal sub-
scriptions : but Ado, a writer indeed of small account, reckons
six hundred bishops in the council of Aries.
325 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 373
by the legates of the Roman pontiff. The session, which
lasted about two months, was frequently honoured by
the presence of the emperor. Leaving his guards at
the door, he seated himself (with the permission of the
council) on a low stool in the midst of the hall. Con-
stantine listened with patience and spoke with modesty :
and, while he influenced the debates, he humbly pro-
fessed that he was the minister, not the judge, of the
successors of the apostles, who had been established as
priests and as gods upon earth. Such profound re-
rerence of an absolute monarch towards a feeble and
unarmed assembly of his own subjects can only be
compared to the respect with which the senate had been
treated by the Roman princes, who adopted the policy
of Augustus. Within the space of fifty years, a philo-
sophic spectator of the vicissitude of human affairs might
have contemplated Tacitus in the senate of Rome, and
Constantine in the council of Nice. The fathers of the
capitol and those of the church had alike degenerated
from the virtues of their founders ; but, as the bishops
were more deeply rooted in the public opinion, they
sustained their dignity with more decent pride, and
sometimes opposed, with a manly spirit, the wishes of
their sovereign. The progress of time and superstition
erased the memory of the weakness, the passion, the
ignorance, which disgraced these ecclesiastical synods ;
and the Catholic world has unanimously submitted to
the infallible decrees of the general councils.
374 THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAPTER XXI
PERSECUTION OF HERESY THE SCHISM OF THE DONA-
TISTS THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY ATHANASIUS
DISTRACTED STATE OF THE CHURCH AND EMPIRE
UNDER CONSTANTINE AND HIS SONS TOLERATION
OF PAGANISM
The grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated
the memory of a prince who indulged their passions
and promoted their interest. Constantine gave them
security, wealth, honours, and revenge : and the sup-
port of the orthodox faith was considered as the most
sacred and important duty of the civil magistrate
The edict of Milan, the great charter of toleration,
had confirmed to each individual of the Roman world
the privilege of choosing and professing his own re-
ligion. But this inestimahle privilege was soon vio-
lated : with the knowledge of truth, the emperor
imbibed the maxims of persecution ; and the sects which
dissented from the Catholic church were afflicted and
oppressed by the triumph of Christianity. Constantine
easily believed that the Heretics, who presumed to
dispute his opinions or to oppose his commands, were
guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinacy ; and
that a seasonable application of moderate severities
might save those unhappy men from the danger of an
everlasting condemnation. Not a moment was lost in
excluding the ministers and teachers of the separated
congregations from any share of the rewards and im-
munities which the emperor had so liberally bestowed
on the orthodox clergy. But, as the sectaries might
still exist under the cloud of royal disgrace, the con-
quest of the East was immediately followed by an edict
which announced their total destruction. After a
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 375
preamble filled with passion and reproach, Constantino
absolutely prohibits the assemblies of the Heretics, and
confiscates their public property to the use either of
the revenue or of the Catholic church. The sects
against whom the Imperial severity was directed appear
to have been the adherents of Paul of Samosata ; the
Montanists of Phrygia, who maintained an enthusiastic
succession of prophecy ; the Novatians, who sternly
rejected the temporal efficacy of repentance ; the Mar-
cionites and Valentinians, under whose leading banners
the various Gnostics of Asia and Egypt had insensibly
rallied ; and perhaps the Manichaeans, who had recently
imported from Persia a more artful composition of
Oriental and Christian theology.^ The design of ex-
tirpating the name, or at least of restraining the
progress, of these odious Heretics was prosecuted with,
vigour and effect. Some of the penal regulations were
copied from the edicts of Diocletian ; and this method
of conversion was applauded by the same bishops who
had felt the hand of oppression and had pleaded for
the rights of humanity. Two immaterial circumstances
may serve, however, to prove that the mind of Con-
stantine was not entirely corrupted by the spirit of
zeal and bigotry. Before he condemned the Mani-
chseans and their kindred sects, he resolved to make
an accurate inquiry into the nature of their religious
principles. As if he distrusted the impartiality of his
ecclesiastical counsellors, this delicate commission was
entrusted to a civil magistrate, whose learning and
moderation he justly esteemed, and of whose venal
character he was probably ignorant. The emperor
was soon convinced that he had too hastily proscribed
1 After some examination of the various opinions of
Tillemont, Beausobre, Lardner, &c. I am convinced that
Manes did not propagate this sect, even in Persia, before tb«;
year 270. It is strange that a philosophic and foreign heresy
should have penetrated so rapidly into the African provinces ;
yet I cannot easily reject the edit of Diocletian against the
Manichaeans, which may be found in Baronius. (Annal. Eccl.
A.D. 287.)
376 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the orthodox faith and the exemplary morals of the
Novatians, who had dissented from the church in some
articles of discipline which were not perhaps essential
to salvation. By a particular edict, he exempted them
from the general penalties of the law ; ^ allowed them
to build a church at Constantinople, respected the
miracles of their saints, invited their bishop Acesius to
the council of Nice, and gently ridiculed the narrow
tenets of his sect by a familiar jest, which, from the
mouth of a sovereign, must have been received with
applause and gratitude.^
The complaints and mutual accusations which as-
sailed the throne of Constantine, as soon as the death
of Maxentius had submitted Africa to his victorious
arms, were ill adapted to edify an imperfect proselyte.
He learned with surprise that the provinces of that
great country, from the confines of Cyrene to the
columns of Hercules, were distracted with religious
discord. The source of the division was derived from
a double election in the church of Carthage ; the
second, in rank and opulence, of the ecclesiastical
thrones of the West. Caecilian and Majorinus were
the two rival primates of Africa ; and the death of
the latter soon made room for Donatus, who, by his
superior abilities and apparent virtues, was the firmest
support of his party. The advantage which Caecilian
might claim from the priority of his ordination was
destroyed by the illegal, or at least indecent, haste
with which it had been performed, without expecting
the arrival of the bishops of Numidia. The authority
of these bishops, who, to the number of seventy, con-
2 Cod. Theod. 1. xvi. tit. v. leg. 2. As the general law is
not inserted in the Theodosian code, it is probable, that in
the year 438 the sects which it had condemned were already
extinct.
3 Sozomen, 1. i. c. 22. Socrates, 1. i. c. 10, These historians
have been suspected, but I think without reason, of an attach-
ment to the Novatian doctrine. The emperor said to the
bishop, "Acesius, take a ladder, and get up to Heaven by
yourself." Most of the Christian sects have, by turns, borrowed
the ladder of Acesius.
314-316 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 377
demned Caecilian and consecrated Majorinus, is again
weakened by the infamy of some of their personal
characters ; and by the female intrigues_, sacrilegious
bargains^ and tumultuous proceedings which are im-
puted to this Numidian council. The bishops of the
contending factions maintained, with equal ardour and
obstinacy, that their adversaries were degraded, or at
least dishonoured, by the odious crime of delivering
the Holy Scriptures to the officers of Diocletian. From
their mutual reproaches, as well as from the story of
this dark transaction, it may justly be inferred that the
late persecution had embittered the zeal, without re-
forming the manners, of the African Christians. That
divided church was incapable of affording an impartial
judicature ; the controversy was solemnly tried in
five successive tribunals which were appointed by the
emperor ; and the whole proceeding, from the first
appeal to the final sentence, lasted above three years,
A severe inquisition, which was taken by the Praetorian
vicar and the proconsul of Africa, the report of two
episcopal visitors who had been sent to Carthage, the
decrees of the councils of Rome and of Aries, and the
supreme judgment of Constantine himself in his sacred
consistory, were all favourable to the cause of Caecilian ;
and he was unanimously acknowledged by the civil and
ecclesiastical powers as the true and lawful primate of
Africa. The honours and estates of the church were
attributed to his suffragan bishops, and it was not
without difficulty that Constantine was satisfied with
inflicting the punishment of exile on the principal
leaders of the Donatist faction. As their cause was
examined with attention, perhaps it was determined
with justice. Perhaps their complaint was not without
foundation, that the credulity of the emperor had been
abused by the insidious arts of his favourite Osius. The
influence of falsehood and corruption might procure
the condemnation of the innocent, or aggravate the
sentence of the guilty. Such an act, however, of
injustice, if it concluded an importunate dispute, might
be numbered among the transient evils of a despotic
378 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
administration, which are neither felt nor remembered
by posterity.
But this incident, so inconsiderable that it scarcely
deserves a place in history, was productive of a memor-
able schism, which afflicted the provinces of Africa
above three hundred years, and was extinguished only
with Christianity itself. The inflexible zeal of freedom
and fanaticism animated the Donatists to refuse obedi-
ence to the usurpers whose election they disputed and
whose spiritual powers they denied. Excluded from
the civil and religious communion of mankind, they
boldly excommunicated the rest of mankind, who
had embraced the impious party of Caecilian, and of
the Traditors, from whom he derived his pretended
ordination. They asserted with confidence, and almost
with exultation, that the Apostolical succession was
interrupted ; that all the bishops of Europe and Asia
were infected by the contagion of guilt and schism ;
and that the prerogatives of the Catholic church were
confined to the chosen portion of the African believers,
who alone had preserved inviolate the integrity of
their faith and discipline. This rigid theory was sup-
ported by the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever
they acquired a proselyte, even from the distant
provinces of the East, they carefully repeated the
sacred rites of baptism * and ordination ; as they re-
jected the validity of those which he had already
received from the hands of heretics or schismatics.
Bishops, virgins, and even spotless infants were sub-
jected to the disgrace of a public penance, before they
could be admitted to the communion of the Donatists.
If they obtained possession of a church which had been
used by their Catholic adversaries, they purified the
4 The councils of Aries, of Nice and of Trent confirmed the
wise and moderate practice of the church of Rome. The
Donatists, however, had the advantage of maintaining the
sentiment of Cyprian, and of a considerable part of the primitive
church. Vincentius Lirinensis (p. 332, ap. Tilemont, M^m.
Eccl6s. torn. vi. p. 138) has explained why the Donatists are
eternally burning with the Devil, while St. Cyprian reigns in
heaven with Jesus Christ.
393 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 379
unhallowed building- with the same jealous care which
a temple of idols might have required. They washed
the pavement, scraped the walls, burnt the altar, which
was commonly-of wood, melted the consecrated plate,
and cast the Holy P^ucharist to the dogs, with every
circumstance of ignominy which could provoke and
perpetuate the animosity of religious factions. Not-
withstanding this irreconcilable aversion, the two
parties, who were mixed and separated in all the cities
of Africa, had the same language and manners, the
same zeal and learning, the same faith and worship.
Proscribed by the civil and ecclesiastical powers of
the empire, the Donatists still maintained in some
provinces, particularly in Numidia, their superior
numbers ; and four hundred bishops acknowledged the
jurisdiction of their primate. But the invincible spirit
of the sect sometimes preyed on its own vitals ; and the
bosom of their schismatical church was torn by intes-
tine divisions. A fourth part of the Donatist bishops
followed the independent standard of the Maximianists.
The narrow and solitary path which their first leaders
had marked out continued to deviate from the great
society of mankind. Even the imperceptible sect of
the Rogatians could affirm, without a blush, that, when
Christ should descend to judge the earth, he would
find his true religion preserved only in a few nameless
villages of the Caesarean Mauritania.
The schism of the Donatists was confined to Africa :
the more diffusive mischief of the Trinitarian con-
troversy successively penetrated into every part of the
Christian world. Tlie former was an accidental quarrel,
occasioned by the abuse of freedom ; the latter was a
high and mysterious argument, derived from the abuse
of philosophy. From the age of Constantino to that
of Clovis and Theodoric, the temporal interests both of
the Romans and Barbarians were deeply involved in
the theological disputes of Arianism. The historian
may therefore be permitted respectfully to with-
draw the veil of the sanctuary ; and to deduce the
progress of reason and faith, of error and passion.
380 THE DECLINE aND FALL
from the school of Plato to the decline and fall of the
empire.
The genius of Plato, informed by his own meditation,
or by the traditional knowledge of the priests of Egypt,^
had ventured to explore the mysterious nature of the
Deity. When he had elevated his mind to the sublime
contemplation of the first self-existent, necessary cause
of the universe, the Athenian sage was incapable of
conceiving how the simple unity of his essence could
admit the infinite variety of distinct and successive
ideas which compose the model of the intellectual
world ; how a Being purely incorporeal could execute
that perfect model, and mould with a plastic hand the
rude and independent chaos. The vain hope of ex-
tricating himself from these difficulties, which must ever
oppress the feeble powers of the human mind, might
induce Plato to consider the divine nature under the
threefold modification : of the first cause, the reason
or Logos, and the soul or spirit of the universe. His
poetical imagination sometimes fixed and animated
these metaphysical abstractions ; the three archical or
original principles were represented in the Platonic
system of three Gods, united with each other by a
mysterious and ineffable generation ; and the Logos
was particularly considered under the more accessible
character of the Son of an Eternal Father, and the
Creator and Governor of the world. Such appear to
have been the secret doctrines which were cautiously
whispered in the gardens of the academy ; and which,
according to the more recent disciples of Plato, could
5 Plato i5!gyptum peragravit ut a sacerdotibus Barbaris
numeros et caelestia acciperet. Cicero de Finibus, v. 25. The
Egyptians might still preserve the traditional creed of the
Patriarchs. Josephus has persuaded many of the Christian
fathers that Plato derived a part of his knowledge from the
Jews ; but this vain opinion cannot be reconciled with the
obscure state and unsocial manners of the Jewish people,
whose scriptures were not accessible to Greek curiosity till more
than one hundred years after the death of Plato. See Marsham,
Canon. Chron. , p. 144.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 381
not be perfectly understood, till after an assiduous
Btudv of thirty years.
The arms of the Macedonians diffused over Asia and
Eg-ypt the lang-ua^e and learning- of Greece ; and the
theological system of Plato was taught with less re-
serve, and perhaps with some improvements, in the
celebrated school of Alexandria. A numerous colony
of Jews had been invited, by the favour of the Ptolemies,
to settle in their new capital. While the bulk of the
nation practised the legal ceremonies, and pursued the
lucrative occupations of commerce, a few Hebrews, of
a more liberal spirit, devoted their lives to religious
and philosophical contemplation. They cultivated
with diligence, and embraced with ardour, the theo-
logical system of the Athenian sage. But their national
pride would have been mortified by a fair confession
of their former poverty : and they boldly marked, as
the sacred inheritance of their ancestors, the gold and
jewels which they had so lately stolen from their
Egyptian masters. One hundred years before the
birth of Christ, a philosophical treatise, which mani-
festly betrays the style and sentiments of the school
of Plato, was produced by the Alexandrian Jews, and
unanimously received as a genuine and valuable relic
of the inspired Wisdom of Solomon.^ A similar
union of the Mosaic faith and the Grecian philosophy
distinguishes the works of Philo, which were composed,
for the most part, under the reign of Augustus.'' The
material soul of the universe might offend the piety of
6 The book of the Wisdom of Solomon was received by
many of the fathers as the work of that monarch ; and, although
rejected by the Protestants for want of a Hebrew original, it
has obtained, with the rest of the Vulgate, the sanction of the
council of Trent,
" The Platonism of Philo, which was famous to a proverb, is
proved beyond a doubt by Le Clerc(Epist. Crit. viii. pp. 211-228).
Basnage (Hist, des Juifs, 1. iv. c. 5) has clearly ascertained that
the theological works of Philo were composed before the death,
and most probably before the birth, of Christ. In such a time
of darkness, the knowledge of Philo is more astonishing than his
errors. Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. s. i. c. i. p. 12.
382 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the Hebrews : but they applied the character of the
Logos to the Jehovah of Moses and the patriarchs ;
and the Son of God was introduced upon earth under
a visible, and even human, appearance, to perform
those familiar offices which seem incompatible with the
nature and attributes of the Universal Cause.*
The eloquence of Plato, the name of Solomon, the
authority of the school of Alexandria, and the consent
of the Jews and Greeks, were insufficient to establish
the truth of a mysterious doctrine which might please,
but could not satisfy, a rational mind. A prophet or
apostle, inspired by the Deity, can alone exercise a
lawful dominion over the faith of mankind ; and the
theology of Plato might have been for ever confounded
with the philosophical visions of the Academy, the
Porch, and the Lyceum, if the name and divine at-
tributes of the Logos had not been confirmed by the
celestial pen of the last and most sublime of the
Evangelists.^ The Christian Revelation, which was
consummated under the reign of Nerva, disclosed to
the world the amazing secret that the Logos, who was
with God from the beginning and was God, who had
made all things and for whom all things had been
made, was incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth ;
who had been born of a virgin, and suffered death on
the cross. Besides the general design of fixing on a
perpetual basis the divine honours of Christ, the most
ancient and respectable of the ecclesiastical writers
have ascribed to the evangelic theologian a particular
8 This notion, till it was abused by the Arians, was freely
adopted in the Christian theology. TertuUian (adv. Praxeam,
c. i6) has a remarkable and dangerous passage. After con-
trasting, with indiscreet wit, the nature of God and the actions
of Jehovah, he concludes : Scilicet ut haec de filio Dei non
credenda fuisse si non scripta essent ; fortasse non credenda
de Patre licet scripta.
9 The Platonists admired the beginning of the Gospel of St.
John, as containing an exact transcript of their own principles.
But in the third and fourth centuries, the Platonists of Alexandria
might improve their Trinity by the secret study of the Christian
theology.
97 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 383
intention to confute two opposite heresies, which dis-
turbed the peace of the primitive church. ^^ I. The
faith of the Ebionites^ perhaps of the Nazarenes, was
gross and imperfect. They revered Jesus as the greatest
of the prophets, endowed with supernatural virtue and
power. They ascribed to his person and to his future
reig-n all the predictions of the Hebrew oracles which
relate to the spiritual and everlasting kingdom of the
promised Messiah.^^ Some of them might confess that
he was born of a virgin : but they obstinately rejected
the preceding existence and divine perfections of the
Logos, or Son of God, which are so clearly defined in
the Gospel of St. John. About'fifty years afterwards,
the Ebionites, whose errors are mentioned by Justin
Martyr with less severity than they seem to deserve,
formed a very inconsiderable portion of the Christian
name. H. The Gnostics, who were distinguished by
the epithet of Docetes, deviated into the contrary ex-
treme, and betrayed the human, while they asserted
the divine, nature of Christ. Educated in the school
of Plato, accustomed to the sublime idea of the Logos,
they readily conceived that the brightest ^on, or
Emanation of the Deity, might assume the outward
shape and -visible appearances of a mortal ; ^^ but they
vainly pretended that the imperfections of matter are
incompatible with the purity of a celestial substance.
While the blood of Christ yet smoked on Mount
Calvary, the Docetes invented the impious and ex-
travagant hypothesis that, instead of issuing from the
womb of the Virgin, he had descended on the banks
of the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood ; that
he had imposed on the senses of his enemies, and of
10 The Gospel according to St. John is supposed to have been
published about seventy years after the death of Christ.
11 The humble condition and sufferings of Jesus have always
been a stumbling block to the Jews. But this objection has
obliged the believing Christians to lift up their eyes to a
spiritual and everlasting kingdom.
12 The Arians reproached the orthodox party with borrowing
their Trinity from the Valentinians and Marcionites.
384 THE DECLINE AND FALL
his disciples ; and that the ministers of Pilate had
wasted their impotent rage on an airy phantom, who
seemed to expire on the cross and, after three days, to
rise from the dead.
The divine sanction which the Apostle had bestowed
on the fundamental principle of the theology of Plato
encouraged the learned proselytes of the second and
third centuries to admire and study the writings of the
Athenian sage, who had thus marvellously anticipated
one of the most surprising discoveries of the Christian
revelation. The respectable name of Plato was used
by the orthodox, and abused by the heretics, as the
common support of truth and error : the authority of
his skilful commentators, and the science of dialectics,
were employed to justify the remote consequences
of his opinions, and to supply the discreet silence of
the inspired writers. The same subtle and profound
questions concerning the nature, the generation, the
distinction, and the equality of the three divine persons
of the mysterious Triad, or Trinity,^^ were agitated
in the philosophical, and in the Christian, schools
of Alexandria. An eager spirit of curiosity urged
them to explore the secrets of the abyss ; and the
pride of the professors and of their disciples was
satisfied with the science of words. But the most
sagacious of the Christian theologians, the great
Athanasius himself, has candidly confessed ^^ that,
whenever he forced his understanding to meditate on
the divinity of the Logos, his toilsome and unavailing
efforts recoiled on themselves ; that the more he
thought, the less he comprehended ; and the more
he wrote, the less capable was he of expressing his
"^' If Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, was the first who em-
ployed the word Triad, Trinity, that abstract term, which was
already familiar to the schools of philosophy, must have been
introduced into the theology of the Christians after the middle
of the second century.
!•* Athanasius, torn. i. p. 808. His expressisns have an un-
common energy ; and, as he was writing to Monks, there could
not be any occasion for him to affect a rational language.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 385
thoughts. In every step of the inquiry^ we are com-
pelled to feel and acknowledge the immeasurable dis-
proportion between the size of the object and the
capacity of the human mind, "^^'e may strive to ab-
stract the notions of time, of space, and of matter,
which so closely adhere to all the perceptions of our
experimental knowledge. But, as soon as we presume
to reason of infinite substance, of spiritual genera-
tion ; as often as we deduce any positive conclusions
from a negative idea, we are involved in darkness,
perplexity, and inevitable contradiction. As these
difficulties arise from the nature of the subject, they
oppress, with the same insuperable weight, the philo-
sophic and the theological disputant ; but we may
observe two essential and peculiar circumstances which
discriminated the doctrines of the Catholic church
from the opinions of the Platonic school.
I. A chosen society of philosophers, men of a liberal
education and curious disposition, might silently medi-
tate, and temperately discuss, in the gardens of Athens
or the library of Alexandria, the abstruse questions
of metaphysical science. The lofty speculations which
neither convinced the understanding, nor agitated the
passions, of the Platonists themselves were carelessly
overlooked by the idle, the busy, and even the studious
part of mankind. ^^ But, after the Logos had been re-
vealed as the sacred object of the faith, the hope, and
the religious worship of the Christians, the mysterious
system was embraced by a numerous and increasing
multitude in every province of the Roman world.
Those persons who, from their age, or sex, or occupa-
tions, were the least qualified to judge, who were the
least exercised in the habits of abstract reasoning,
aspired to contemplate the economy of the Divine
15 In a treatise which professed to explain the opinions of
the ancient philosophers concerning the nature of the gods we
might expect to discover the theological Trinity of Plato. But
Cicero very honestly confessed that, though he had translated
the Timseus, he could never understand that mysterious dia-
logue.
VOL, IJ. ,,
386 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Nature ; and it is the boast of Tertullian that a Chris-
tian meelianic could readily answer such questions as
had perplexed the wisest of the Grecian sages. W'^here
the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference
between the highest and the lowest of human under-
standings may indeed be calculated as infinitely small ;
yet the degree of weakness may perhaps be measured
by the degree of obstinacy and dogmatic confidence.
These speculations, instead of being treated as the
amusement of a vacant hour, became the most serious
business of the present, and the most useful preparation
for a future, life. A theology, which it was incumbent
to believe, which it was impious to doubt, and which it
might be dangerous, and even fatal, to mistake, became
the familiar topic of private meditation and popular
discourse. The cold indifference of philosophy was
inflamed by the fervent spirit of devotion ; and even
the metaphors of common language suggested the
fallacious prejudices of sense and experience. The
Christians, who abhorred the gross and impure genera-
tion of the Greek mythology, were tempted to argue
from the familiar analogy of the filial and paternal
relations. The character of Son seemed to imply a
perpetual subordination to the voluntary author of his
existence ; ^^ but, as tlie act of generation, in the most
spiritual and abstracted sense, must be supposed to
transmit the properties of a common nature, they
durst not presume to circumscribe the powers or tlie
duration of the Son of an eternal and omnipotent
Father. Fourscore years after the death of Christ,
the Christians of Bithynia declared before the tribunal
of Pliny that they invoked him as a god ; and his
divine honours have been perpetuated in every age
and country by the various sects who assume the name
16 Many of the primitive writers have frankly confessed that
the Son owed his being to the wi// of the Father. On the other
hand, Athanasius and his followers seem unwilling to grant
what they are afraid to deny. The schoolmen extricate them-
selves from this difficulty by the distinction of a preceding and
a concomitant wilL
OF THE ROMAN ExMPlRE 387
of his disciples. Their tender reverence for the
memory of Christ and their horror for the profane
worship of any created being- would have engaged them
to assert the equal and absolute divinity of the Logos,
if their rapid ascent towards the throne of heaven had
not been imperceptibly checked by the apprehension
of violating the unity and sole supremacy of the great
Father of Christ and of the Universe. The suspense
and fluctuation produced in the minds of the Christians
by these opposite tendencies may be observed in the
writings of the theologians who flourished after the
end of the apostolic asre and before the origin of the
Arian controversy, 'llieir suffrage is claimed^ with
equal confidence, by the orthodox and by the heretical
parties ; and the most inquisitive critics have fairly
allowed that, if they had the good fortune of possessing
the Catholic verity, they have delivered their concep-
tions in loose, inaccurate, and sometimes contradictory
language.
II. The devotion of individuals was the flrst circum-
stance which distinguished the Christians from the
Platonists ; the »ecoud was the authority of the church.
The disciples of philosophy asserted the rights of in-
tellectual freedom, and their respect for the sentiments
of their teachers was a liberal and voluntary tribute,
which they ofi'ered to superior reason. But the Chris-
tians formed a Jiumerous and disciplined society ; and
the jurisdiction of their laws and magistrates was
strictly exercised over the minds of the faithful. The
loose wanderings of the imagination were gradually
conflued by creeds and confessions ; ^'' the freedom of
private judgment submitted to the public wisdom of
synods ; the authority of a theologian was determined
by his ecclesiastical rank ; and the episcopal successors
of the apostles inflicted the censures of the church on
those who deviated from the orthodox belief. But in
an age of religious controversy every act of oppression
adds new force to the elastic vigour of the mind ; and
1'^ The most ancient creeds were drawn up with the greatest
latitude.
388 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the zeal or obstinacy of a spiritual rebel was sometimes
stimulated by secret motives of ambition or avarice.
A metaphysical argument became the cause or pretence
of political contests ; the subtleties of the Platonic
school were used as the badij^es of popular factions,
and the distance which separated their respective tenets
was enlarged or magnified by the acrimony of dispute.
As long as the dark heresies of Praxeas and Sabellius
laboured to confound the Father with the Son,^^ the
orthodox party might be excused if they adhered more
strictly and more earnestly to the distinction, than to
the equality, of the divine persons. But, as soon as the
heat of controversy had subsided, and the progress of
the Sabellians was no longer an object of terror to
the churches of Rome, of Africa, or of Egypt ; the tide
of theological opinion began to flow with a gentle but
steady motion toward the contrary extreme ; and the
most orthodox doctors allowed themselves the use of
the terms and definitions which had been censured
in the mouth of the sectaries. ^^ After the edict of
toleration had restored peace and leisure to the Chris-
tians, the Trinitarian controversy was revived in the
ancient seat of Platonism, the learned, the opulent,
the tumultuous city of Alexandria ; and the flame of
religious discord was rapidly communicated from the
schools to the clergy, the people, the province, and
the East. The abstruse question of the eternity of the
Logos was agitated in ecclesiastical conferences and
popular sermons ; and the heterodox opinions of Arius ^
were soon made public by his own zeal and by that of
18 Praxeas, who came to Rome about the end of the second
century, deceived, for some time, the simplicity of the bishop,
and was confuted by the pen of the angry Tertullian.
18 Socrates acknowledges that the heresy of Arius proceeded
from his strong desire to embrace an opinion the most dia-
metrically opposite to that of Sabellius.
20 The figure and manners of Arius, the character and
numbers of his first proselytes, are painted in very lively colours
by Epiphanius (tom. i. Hceres. Ixix. 3, p. 729) ; and we cannot
but regret that he should soon forget the historian, to assume
the task of controversy.
318-325 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 389
his adversaries. His most implacable adversaries have
ackuo\vledg:ed the learning and blameless life of that
eminent presbyter, who, in a former election, had de-
clared, and perhaps generously declined, his pretensions
to the episcopal throne.^^ His competitor Alexander
assumed the office of his judge. The important cause
was argued before him ; and, if at tirst he seemed to
hesitate, he at length pronounced his final sentence,
as an absolute rule of faith. The undaunted presbyter,
who presumed to resist the authority of his angry
bishop, was separated from the communion of the
church. But the pride of Arius was supported by the
applause of a numerous party. He reckoned among
his immediate followers two bishops of Egypt, seven
presbyters, twelve deacons, and (what may appear
almost incredible) seven hundred virgins. A large
majority of the bishops of Asia appeared to support or
favour his cause ; and their measures were conducted
by Eusebius of Caesarea, the most learned of the
Christian prelates, and by Eusebius of Nicomedia, who
had acquired the reputation of a statesman without
forfeiting that of a saint. Synods in Palestine and
Bithynia were opposed to the synods of Egypt. The
attention of the prince and people was attracted by
this theological dispute ; and the decision, at the end
of six years,^^ was referred to the supreme authority of
the general council of Nice.
W^hen the mysteries of the Christian faith were
dangerously exposed to public debate, it might be
observed that the human understanding was capable
of forming three distinct, though imperfect, systems
concerning the nature of the Divine Trinity ; and it
was pronouncedHhat none of these systems, in a pure
and absolute sense, were exempt from heresy and error.
21 Yet the credibility of Philostorgius is lessened in the eyes
of the orthodox by his Arianism ; and in those of rational
critics by his passion, his prejudice, and his ignorance.
22 The flames of Arianism might burn for some time in
secret ; but there is reason to believe that they burst out with
violence as eai-ly as the year 319.
390 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
L AccordinsT to the first hypothesis, which was main-
tained by Arius and his disciples, the Logos was a
dependent and spontaneous production, created from
nothing by the will of the Father. The Son, by whom
all things were made,^^ had been begotten before all
worlds, and the longest of the astronomical periods
could be compared only as a fleeting moment to the
extent of his duration ; yet this duration was not in-
finite, and there had been a time which preceded the
ineffable generation of the Logos. On this only-begotten
Son the Almighty Father had transfused his ample
spirit, and impressed the effulgence of his glory.
Visible image of invisible perfection, he saw, at an
immeasurable distance beneath his feet, the thrones
of the brightest archangels : yet he shone only with
a refiected light, and, like the sons of the Roman
emperors who were invested with the titles of Caesar
or Augustus, 2^ he governed the universe in obedience
to the will of his Father and Monarch. II. In the
second hypothesis, the Logos possessed all the inherent,
incommunicable perfections which religion and philo-
sophy appropriate to the Supreme God. Three dis-
tinct and infinite minds or substances, three co-equal
and co-eternal beings, composed the Divine Essence ;
and it would have implied contradiction that any of
them should not have existed or that they should ever
cease to exist. The advocates of a system which seemed
to establish three independent Deities attempted to
preserve the unity of the First Cause, so conspicuous
in the design and order of the world, by the perpetual
concord of their administration and the essential agree-
ment of their will. A faint resemblance of this unity
of action may be discovered in the 5;ocieties of men,
23 As the doctrine of absolute creation from nothing was
gradually introduced among the Christians (Beausobre, tom. ii.
pp. 165-215), the dignity of the workman very naturally rose
with that of the work.
^ This profane and absurd simile is employed by several
of the primitive fathers, particularly by Athenagoras, in his
Apology to the emperor Marcus and his son ; and it i? alleged,
without censure, by Bull himself.
825 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 391
and even of animals. Tlie causes which disturb their
harmony proceed only from the imperfection and in-
equality of their faculties : but the omnipotence which
is g-uided by infinite wisdom and goodness cannot fail
of choosing the same means for the accomplishment
of the same ends. III. Three Beings, who, by the
self-derived necessity of their existence, possess all the
divine attributes in the most perfect degree ; who are
eternal in duration, infinite in space, and intimately
present to each other and to the whole universe ;
irresistibly force themselves on the astonished mind as
one and the same Being, who, in the economy of grace,
as well as in that of nature, may manifest himself
under different forms, and be considered under dif-
ferent aspects. By this hypothesis, a real substantial
Trinity is refined into a trinity of names and abstract
modifications, that subsist only in the mind which
conceives them. Ilie Logos is no longer a person, but
an attribute ; and it is only in a figurative sense that
the epithet of Son can be applied to the eternal reason
which was with God from the beginning, and by which,
not by whom, all things were made. The incarnation
of the Logos is reduced to a mere inspiration of the
Divine Wisdom, which filled the soul, and directed aU
the actions, of the man Jesus. Tlius, after revolving
round the theological circle, we are surprised to find
that the Sabellian ends where the Ebionite had begun ;
and that the incomprehensible mystery which excites
our adoration eludes our inquiry. -°
If the bishops of the council of Nifce had been per-
mitted to follow the unbiassed dictates of their con-
science, Arius and his associates could scarcely have
flattered themselves with the hopes of obtaining a
majority of votes, in favour of an hypothesis so directly
adverse to the two most popular opinions of the
25 If the Sabellians were startled at this conclusion, they
were driven down another precipice into the confession, that
the Father was born of a virgin, that ke had suffered on the
cross ; and thus deserved the odious epithet of Patri-passians,
with which they were branded by their adversaries.
392 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Catholic world. The Arians soon perceived the danger
of their situation, and prudently assumed those modest
virtues which, in the fury of civil and religious dissen-
sions, are seldom practised, or even praised, except by
the weaker party. They recommended the exercise of
Christian charity and moderation ; urged the incom-
prehensible nature of the controversy ; disclaimed the
use of any terms or definitions which could not be
found in the scriptures ; and offered, by very liberal
concessions, to satisfy their adversaries without re-
nouncing the integrity of their own principles. The
victorious faction received all their proposals with
haughty suspicion ; and anxiously sought for some
irreconcilable mark of distinction, the rejection of
which might involve the Arians in the guilt and conse-
quences of heresy. A letter was publicly read, and
ignominiously torn, in which their patron, Eusebius of
Nicomedia, ingenuously confessed that the admission
of the HoMOOusioN, or Consubstantial, a word already
familiar to the Platonists, was incompatible with the
principles of their theological system. The fortunate
opportunity was eagerly embraced by the bishops who
governed the resolutions of the synod ; and, according
to the lively expression of Ambrose, they used the
sword, which heresy itself had drawn from the scabbard,
to cut off the head of the hated monster. The con-
substantiality of the Father and the Son was established
by the council of Nice, and has been unanimously
received as a fundamental article of the Christian faith,
by the consent of the Greek, the Latin, the Oriental,
and the Protestant churches. But, if the same word
had not served to stigmatise the heretics and to unite
the Catholics, it would have been inadequate to the
purpose of the majority by whom it was introduced
into the orthodox creed. This majority was divided
into two parties, distinguished by a contrary tendency
to the sentiments of the Tritheists and of the Sabellians.
But, as those opposite extremes seemed to overthrow
the foundations either of natural or revealed religion,
they mutually agreed to qualify the rigour of their
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 393
principles and to disavow the just, but invidious, con-
sequences which might be urged by their antagonists.
The interest of the common cause inclined them to join
their numbers and to conceal their differences ; their
animosity was softened by the healing councils of
toleration, and their disputes were suspended by the
use of the mysterious Homoousion , which either party
was free to interpret according to their peculiar tenets.
The Sabellian sense, which, about fifty years before,
had obliged the council of Antioch to prohibit this
celebrated term, had endeared it to those theologians
who entertained a secret but partial affection for a
nominal Trinity. But the more fashionable saints of
the Ariau times, the intrepid Athanasius, the learned
Gregory Nazianzen, and the other pillars of the church,
who supported with ability and success the Nicene
doctrine, appeared to consider the expression of sub-
stance as if it had been synonymous with that of nature ;
and they ventured to illustrate their meaning by affirm-
ing that three men, as they belong to the same common
species, are consubstantial or homoousian to each other.
This pure and distinct equality was tempered, on the
one hand, by the internal connection, and spiritual
penetration, which iudissolubly unites the divine
persons ; and on the other, by the pre-eminence of the
Father, which was acknowledged as far as it is com-
patible with the independence of the Son.^^ Within
these limits the almost invisible and tremulous ball of
orthodoxy was allowed securely to vibrate. On either
side, beyond this consecrated ground, the heretics and
the demons lurked in ambush to surprise and devour the
unhappy wanderer. But, as the degrees of theological
hatred depend on the spirit of the war rather than on
the importance of the controversy, the heretics who
degraded, were treated with more severity than those
who annihilated, the person of the Son. ' The life of
Athanasius was consumed in irreconcilable opposition
2« The third section of Bull's Defence of the Nicene Faith,
which some of his antagonists have called nonsense, and others
heresy, is consecrated to the supremacy of the Father.
VOL. II. N 2
394 THE DECLINE AND FALL
to the impious madness of the Arians;^^ but he defended
above tweuty years the Sabellianism of Marcellus of
Ancyra ; and, when at last he was compelled to with-
draw himself from his communion_, he continued to
mention, with an ambiguous smile, the venial errors
of his respectable friend.
The authority of a general council, to which the
Arians themselves had been compelled to submit, in-
scribed on the banners of the orthodox party the
mysterious characters of the word Homoousion, which
essentially contributed, notwithstanding some obscure
disputes, some nocturnal combats, to maintain and
{)erpetuate the uniformity of faith, or at least of
auguage. The Consubstantialists, who by their success
have deserved and obtained the title of Catholics,
gloried in the simplicity and steadiness of their own
creed, and insulted the repeated variations of their
adversaries, who were destitute of any certain rule of
faith. The sincerity or the cunning of the Ariau chiefs,
the fears of the laws or of the people, their reverence
for Christ, their hatred of Athanasius, all the causes,
human and divine, that influence and disturb the
counsels of a theological faction, introduced among the
sectaries a spirit of discord and inconstancy, which, in
the course of a few years, erected eighteen different
models of religion, and avenged the violated dignity
of the church. The zealous Hilary, ^^ who, from the
peculiar hardships of his situation, was inclined to
extenuate rather than to aggravate the errors of the
Oriental clergy, declares that in the wide extent of
the ten provinces of Asia, to which he had been
banished, there could be found very few prelates wlio
had preserved the knowledge of the true God. The
oppression which he had felt, the disorders of which he
27 The ordinary appellation with which Athanasius and his fol-
lowers chose to compliment the Arians was that of Ariomanites.
38 Erasmus, with admirable sense and freedom, has delineated
the just character of Hilary. To revise his text, to compose the
annals of his life, and to justify his sentiments and conduct, is
the province of the Benedictine editors.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 395
was the spectator and the victim, appeased, during a
short interval, the angry passions of his soul ; and in
the following passage, of which I shall transcribe a
few lines, the bishop of Poitiers unwarily deviates into
the style of a Christian philosopher. ^^It is a thing,"
says Hilary, '^' equally deplorable and dangerous, that
there are as many creeds as opinions among men, as
many doctrines as inclinations, and as many sources of
blasphemy as there are faults among us ; because we
make creeds arbitrarily, and explain them as arbitrarily.
The Homoousion is rejected, and received, and ex-
plained away by successive synods. The partial or
total resemblance of the Father and of the Son is a
subject of dispute for these unhappy times. Every
year, nay every moon, we make new creeds to describe
invisible mysteries. We repent of what we have done,
we defend those who repent, we anathematise those
whom we defended. We condemn either the doctrine
of others in ourselves or our own in that of others ;
and, reciprocally tearing one another to pieces, we
have been the cause of each other's ruin."
It will not be expected, it would not perhaps be
endured, that 1 should swell this theological digression
by a minute examination of the eighteen creeds, the
authors of which, for the most part, disclaimed the
odious name of their parent Arius. It is amusing
enough to delineate the form, and to trace the vege-
tation, of a singular plant ; but the tedious detail of
leaves without flowers, and of branches without fruit,
'would soon exhaust the patience, and disappoint the
curiosity, of the laborious student. One question
which gradually arose from the Arian controversy
may however be noticed, as it served to produce and
discriminate the three sects who were united only by
their common aversion to the Homoousion of the
Nicene synod. 1. If they were asked, whether the
Son was like unto the Father, the question was resolutely
answered in the negative by the heretics who ad-
hered to the principles of Arius, or indeed to those of
philosophy ; which seem to establish an infinite differ-
396 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
ence between the Creator and the most excellent of
his creatures. This obvious consequence was main-
tained by Aetius, on whom the zeal of his adversaries
bestowed the surname of the Atheist. His restless
and aspiring spirit urged him to try almost every
profession of human life. He was successively a slave,
or at least a husbandman, a travelling tinker, a gold-
smith, a physician, a schoolmaster, a theologian, and
at last the apostle of a new church, which was pro-
pagated by the abilities of his disciple Eunomius.^
Armed with texts of scripture, and with captious
syllogisms from the logic of Aristotle, the subtle
Aetius had acquired the fame of an invincible dis-
putant, whom it was impossible either to silence or to
convince. Such talents engaged the friendship of the
Arian bishops, till they were forced to renounce and
even to persecute a dangerous ally, who by the accuracy
of his reasoning had prejudiced their cause in the
popular opinion and offended the piety of their most
devoted followers. 2. The omnipotence of the Creator
suggested a specious and respectful solution of the
likeness of the Father and the Son ; and faith might
humbly receive what reason would not presume to
deny, that the Supreme God might communicate his
infinite perfections, and create a being similar only to
himself. ^'^ These Arians were powerfully supported
by the weight and abilities of their leaders, who had
succeeded to the management of the Eusebian interest,
and who occupied the principal thrones of the East.
They detested, perhaps with some affectation, the'
29 According to the judgment of a man who respected both
those sectaries, Aetius had been endowed with a stronger
understanding, and Eunomius had acquired more art and
learning (Philostorgius, 1. viii. c. i8). The confession and
apology of Eunomius (Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. tom. viii. pp.
258-305) is one of the few heretical pieces which have escaped.
30 Yet, according to the opinion of Estius and Bull (p. 297),
there is one power, that of creation, which God cannot communi-
cate to a creature. Estius, who so accurately defined the limits
of Omnipotence, was a Dutchman by birth, and by trade a
scholastic divine.
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 397
impiety of Aetius ; they professed to believe, either
without reserve^ or according to the scriptures, that
the Son was different from all other creatures and
similar only to the Father. But they denied that he
was either of the same or of a similar substance ;
sometimes boldly justifying their dissent, and some-
times objecting to the use of the word substance,
which seems to imply an adequate, or at least a distinct,
notion of the nature of the Deity. 3. The sect which
asserted the doctrine of a similar substance was the
most numerous, at least in the provinces of Asia ; and,
when the leaders of both parties were assembled in
the council of Seleucia,^^ their opinion would have pre-
vailed by a majority of one hundred and five to forty-
three bishops. The Greek word which was chosen to
express this mysterious resemblance bears so close an
affinity to the orthodox symbol, that the profane of
every age have derided the furious contests which the
difference of a single diphthong excited between the
Homoousians and the Homoiousians. As it frequently
happens that the sounds and characters which approach
the nearest to each other accidentally represent the
most opposite ideas, the observation would be itself
ridiculous, if it vvere possible to mark any real and
sensible distinction between the doctrine of the Semi-
Arians, as they were improperly styled, and that of
the Catholics themselves. The bishop of Poitiers, who
in his Phrygian exile very wisely aimed at a coalition
of parties, endeavours to prove that, by a pious and
faithful interpretation,^^ the Ho?noiou.9ion may be re-
duced to a consubstantial sense. Yet he confesses that
31 Sabinus (ap. Socrat. 1. ii. c. 39) had copied the acts ;
Athanasius and Hilary have explained the divisions of this
Arian synod ; the other circumstances which are relative to it
are carefully collected by Baronius and Tillemont.
32 In his short apologetical notes (first published by the
Benedictines from a MS. of Chartres) he observes, that he used
this cautious expression, qui intelligerem et impiam, p. 1206.
See p. 1 146. Philostorg-ius, who saw those objects through a
different medium, is inclined to forget the difference of the im-
portant diphthong.
398 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the word has a dark and suspicious aspect ; and, as if
darkness were congenial to theological disputes, the
Serai-Arians, who advanced to the doors of the church,
assailed them with the most unrelenting fury.
The provinces of Egypt and Asia, which cultivated
the language and manners of the Greeks, had deeply
imbihed the venom of the Arian controversy. The
familiar study of the Platonic system, a vain and
argumentative disposition, a copious and flexible idiom,
supplied the clergy and people of the East with an
inexhaustible flow of words and distinctions ; and, in
the midst of their fierce contentions, they easily forgot
the doubt which is recommended by philosophy, and
the submission which is enjoined by religion. The
inhabitants of the West were of a less inquisitive spirit ;
their passions were not so forcibly moved by invisible
objects ; their minds were less frequently exercised
by the habits of dispute, and such was the happy
ignorance of the Gallican church that Hilary himself,
above thirty years after the first general council, was
still a stranger to the Nicene creed. The Latins had
received the rays of divine knowledge through the
dark and doubtful medium of a translation. The
poverty and stubbornness of their native tongue was
not always capable of aff'ording just equivalents for the
Greek terms, for the technical words of the Platonic
philosophy, which had been consecrated by the gospel
or by the church to express the mysteries of the
Christian faith ; and a verbal defect might introduce
into the Latin theology a long train of error or per-
plexity.^ But, as the western provincials had the
good fortune of deriving their religion from an orthodox
source, they preserved with steadiness the doctrine
which they had accepted with docility ; and, when
the Arian pestilence approached their frontiers, they
33 The preference which the fourth council of the Lateran
at length gave to a numerical rather than 2i gene/Heal unity (see
Petav. torn. ii. 1. iv, c. 13, p. 424) was favoured by the Latin
language; Tptdj seems to excite the idea of substance, irinitas
of qualities.
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 899
were supplied with the seasonable preservative of the
Homoousion, by the paternal care of the Roman pontiff.
Their sentiments and their temper were displayed in
the memorable synod of Rimini^ which surpassed in
numbers the council of Nice^ since it was composed of
above four hundred bishops of Italy, Africa, Spain,
Gaul, Britain and lllyricum. From the first debates
it appeared that only fourscore prelates adhered to the
party, though they affected to anathematise the name
and memory of Arius. But this inferiority was com-
pensated by the advantages of skill, of experience, and
of discipline ; and the minority was conducted by
Valens and Ursacius, two bishops of lllyricum, who
had spent their lives in the intrigues of courts and
councils, and who had been trained under the Eusebian
banner in the religious wars of the East. By their
arguments and negotiations, they embarrassed, they
confounded, they at last deceived, the honest simplicity
of the Latin bishops ; who suffered the palladium of
the faith to be extorted from their hands by fraud and
importunity rather than by open violence. The council
of Rimini was not allowed to separate, till the members
had imprudently subscribed a captious creed, in which
some expressions, susceptible of an heretical sense,
were inserted in the room of the Homoousion. It was
on this occasion that, according to Jerom, the world
was surprised to find itself Arian. But the bishops of
the Latin provinces had no sooner reached their re-
spective dioceses than they discovered their mistake
and repented of their weakness. The ignominious
capitulation was rejected with disdain and abhorrence ;
and the Homoousian standard, which had been shaken
but not overthrown, was more firmly replanted in all
the churches of the West.
Such was the rise and progress and such were
the natural revolutions of those theological disputes
which disturbed the peace of Christianity under the
reigns of Constantine and of his sons. But, as those
pi-inces presumed to extend their despotism over the
faith, as well as over the lives and fortunes, of their
400 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
subjects ; the weight of their suffrage sometimes in-
clined the ecclesiastical balance : and the prerogatives
of the King of Heaven were settled, or changed, or
modified, in the cabinet of an earthly monarch.
The unhapuy spirit of discord which pervaded the
provinces of the East interrupted the triumph of Con-
stantine ; but the emperor continued for some time to
view, with cool and careless indifference, the object of
the dispute. As he was yet ignorant of the difficulty
of appeasing the quarrels of theologians, he addressed
to the contending parties, to Alexander and lo Arius,
a moderating epistle ; which may be ascribed, with far
greater reason, to the untutored sense of a soldier and
statesman than to the dictates of any of his episcopal
counsellors. He attributes the origin of the whole
controversy to a trifling and subtle question, concern-
ing an incomprehensible point of the law, which was
foolishly asked by the bishop, and imprudently resolved
by the presbyter. He laments that the Christian
people, who had the same God, the same religion, and
the same worship, should be divided by such incon-
siderable distinctions ; and he seriously recommends
to the clergy of Alexandria the example of the Greek
philosophers ; who could maintain their arguments
without losing their temper, and assert their freedom
without violating their friendship. The indifference
and contempt of the sovereign would have been, perhaps,
the most effectual method of silencing the dispute, if
the popular current had been less rapid and impetuous,
and if Constantine himself, in the midst of faction and
fanaticism, could have preserved the calm possession
of his own mind. But his ecclesiastical ministers soon
contrived to seduce the impartiality of the magistrate,
and to awaken the zeal of the prosel}i;e. He was pro-
voked by the insults which had been offered to his
statues ; he was alarmed by the real, as well as the
imaginary, magnitude of the spreading mischief; and
he extinguished the hope of peace and toleration, from
the moment that he assembled three hundred bishops
within the walls of the same palace. The presence of
324-325 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 401
the monarch swelled the importance of the debate ; his
attention multiplied the arguments ; and he exposed
his person with a patient intrepidity, which animated
the valour of the combatants. Notwithstanding the
applause which has been bestowed on the eloquence
and sagacity of ConstantinC;, a Roman general, whose
religion might be still a subject of doubt, and whose
mind had not been enlightened either by study or by
inspiration, was indifferently qualified to discuss, in
the Greek language, a metaphysical question, or an
article of faith. But the credit of his favourite Osius,
who appears to have presided in the council of Nice,
might dispose the emperor in favour of the orthodox
party ; and a well-timed insinuation that the same
Eusebius of Nicomedia, who now protected the heretic,
had lately assisted the tyrant,34 might exasperate him
against their adversaries. The Nicene creed was ratified
by Constantine ; and his fiiTn declaration that those
who resisted the divine judgment of the synod must
prepare themselves for an immediate exile annihilated
the murmurs of a feeble opposition ; which from
seventeen, was almost instantly reduced to two, pro-
testing bishops. Eusebius of Cfesarea yielded a re-
luctant and ambiguous consent to the Homoousion ; ^
and the wavering conduct of the Nicomedian Eusebius
served only to delay, about three months, his disgrace
and exile. The impious Arius was banished into one
of the remote provinces of Illyricum ; his person and
disciples were branded by law with the odious name of
^ Theodoret has preserved (1. i. c. 20) an epistle from Con-
stantine to the people of Nicomedia, in which the monarch
declares himself the public accuser of one of his subjects ; he
styles Eusebius, 6 rrjs rvpavvLKris u/jlottjtos <rv/j./j.v(TT7)s, and com-
plains of his hostile behaviour during the civil war.
35 See in Socrates (1. i. c. 8), or rather in Theodoret (1. i. c. 12),
an original letter of Eusebius of Cassarea, in which he attempts
to justify his subscribing the Homoousion. The character of
Eusebius has always been a problem ; but those who have read
the second critical epistle of Le Clerc (Ars Crit. tom. iii. pp.
30-69) must entertain a very unfavourable opinion of the ortho-
doxy and sincerity of the bishop of Caesarea.
402 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
Porphyrians ; his writings were condemned to the
flames : and a capital punishment was denounced
ag-ainst those in whose possession they should be
found. The emperor had now imbibed the spirit of
controversy, and the angry sarcastic style of his edicts
was designed to inspire his subjects with the hatred
which he had conceived against the enemies of Christ.
But, as if the conduct of the emperor had been
guided by passion instead of principle, three years
from the council of Nice were scarcely elapsed before
he discovered some symptoms of mercy, and even of
indulgence, towards the proscribed sect, which was
secretly protected by his favourite sister. The exiles
were recalled ; and Eusebius, who gradually resumed
his influence over the mind of Constantine, was restored
to the episcopal throne from which he had been igno-
miniously degraded. Arius himself was treated by the
whole court with the respect which would have been
due to an innocent and oppressed man. His faith was
approved by the synod of Jerusalem ; and the emperor
seemed impatient to repair his injustice, by issuing an
absolute command that he should be solemnly admitted
to the communion in the cathedral of Constantinople.
On the same day which had been fixed for the triumph
of Arius, he expired ; and the strange and horrid
circumstances of his death might excite a suspicion
that the orthodox saints had contributed more effica-
ciously than by their prayers to deliver the church
from the most formidable of her enemies.^^ The
three principal leaders of the Catholics, Athanasius
of Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, and Paul of
Constantinople, were deposed on various accusations,
by the sentence of numerous councils ; and were after-
36 We derive the original story from Athanasius (torn, i. p.
670), who expresses some rehictance to stigmatise the memory
of the dead. He might exaggerate ; but the perpetual com-
merce of Alexandria and Constantinople would have rendered
it dangerous to invent. Those who press the literal narrative
of the death of Arius (his bowels suddenly burst out in a privy)
must make their option between poison and miracle.
328-361 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 403
wards banished into distant provinces by the first of the
Christian emperors, who, in the last moments of his
life, received the rites of baptism from the Arian bishop
of Nicomedia. The ecclesiastical government of Con-
gtantine cannot be justified from the reproach of levity
and weakness. But the credulous monarch, unskilled
in the stratagems of theological warfare, might be
deceived by the modest and specious professions of the
heretics, whose sentiments he never perfectly under-
stood ; and, while he protected Arius, and persecuted
Athanasius, he still considered the council of Nice as
the bulwark of the Christian faith and the peculiar
glory of his own reign.
Tlie sons of Constantine must have been admitted
from their childhood into the rank of catechumens,
but they imitated, in the delay of their baptism, the
example of their father. Like him, they presumed
to pronounce their judgment on mysteries into which
they had never been regularly initiated : and the fate
of the Trinitarian controversy depended, in a great
measure, on the sentiments of Constantius ; who in-
herited the provinces of the East, and acquired the
possession of the whole empire. The Arian presbyter
or bishop, who had secreted for his use the testament
of the deceased emperor, improved the fortunate occa-
sion which had introduced him to the familiarity of a
prince whose public counsels were always swayed by
his domestic favourites. The eunuchs and slaves dif-
fused the spiritual poison through the palace, and the
dangerous infection was communicated, by the female
attendants to the guards, and by the empress to her
unsuspicious husband. The partiality which Con-
stantius always expressed towards the Eusebian faction
was insensibly fortified by the dexterous management
of their leaders ; and his victory over the tyrant
Magnentius increased his inclination, as well as ability,
to employ the arms of power in the cause of Arianism.
While the two armies were engaged in the plains of
Mursa, and the fate of the two rivals depended on the
chance of war, the son of Constantine passed the
404 THE DECLINE AND FALL
anxious moments in a church of the martyrs, under
the walls of the city- His spiritual comforter, Valens,
the Arian bishop of the diocese, employed the most
artful precautions to obtain such early intelligence
as might secure either his favour or his escape. A
secret chain of swift and trusty messengers informed
him of the vicissitudes of the battle ; and, while the
courtiers stood trembling round their affrighted master,
Valens assured him that the Gallic legions gave way ;
and insinuated with some presence of mind that the
glorious event had been revealed to him by an angel.
The grateful emperor ascribed his success to the merits
and intercession of the bishop of Mursa, whose faith
had deserved the public and miraculous approbation
of Heaven. The Arians, who considered as their own
the victory of Constantius, preferred his glory to that
of his father.3'^ Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, immediately
composed the description of a celestial cross encircled
with a splendid rainbow ; which during the festival
of Pentecost, about the third hour of the day, had
appeared over the Mount of Olives, to the edification
of the devout pilgrims and the people of the holy
city.^ The size of the meteor was gradually magni-
fied ; and the Arian historian has ventured to affirm
that it was conspicuous to the two armies in the plains
of Pannonia ; and that the tyrant, who is purposely
represented as an idolater, fled before the auspicious
sign of orthodox Christianity.
The sentiments of a judicious stranger, who has
37 Cyril (apud Baron. A.D. 353, No. 26) expressly observes
that in the reign of Constantine the cross had been found in ihe
bowels of the earth ; but that it had appeared, in the reign of
Constantius, in the midst of the heavens. This opposition
evidently proves that Cyril was ignorant of the stupendous
miracle) to which the conversion of Constantine is attributed ;
and this ignorance is the more surprising, since it was no more
than twelve years after his death that Cyril was consecrated
bishop of Jerusalem by the immediate successor of Eusebius of
Csesarea.
38 It is not easy to determine how far the ingenuity of Cyril
might be assisted by some natural appearances of a solar halo.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 405
impartially considered the proerress of civil or ecclesi-
astical discord, are always entitled to our notice : and
a short passage of Ammianus, who served in the armies,
and studied the character, of Constantius, is perhaps
of more value than many pages of theological invectives.
^'^The Christian religion, which, in itself," says that
moderate historian, ^^ is plain and simple, he confounded
by the dotage of superstition. Instead of reconciling
the parties by the weight of his authority, he cherished
and propagated, by verbal disputes, the differences
which his vain curiosity had excited. The highwayg
were covered with troops of bishops, galloping from
every side to the assemblies, which they call synods ;
and, while they laboured to reduce the whole sect to
their own particular opinions, the public establishment
of the posts was almost ruined by their hasty and
repeated journies." Our more intimate knowledge of
the ecclesiastical transactions of the reign of Con-
stantius would furnish an ample commentary on this
remarkable passage ; which j ustifies the rational ap-
prehensions of Athanasius that the restless activity of
the clergy, who wandered round the empire in search
of the true faith, would excite the contempt and
laughter of the unbelieving world. As soon as the
emperor was relieved from the terrors of the civil
war, he devoted the leisure of his winter quarters at
Aries, Milan, Sirmium, and Constantinople, to the
amusement or toils of controversy : the sword of the
magistrate, and even of the tyrant, was unsheathed,
to enforce the reasons of the theologian ; and, as he
opposed the orthodox faith of Nice, it is readily con-
fessed that his incapacity and ignorance were equal to
his presumption. The eunuchs, the women, and the
bishops, who governed the vain and feeble mind of the
emperor, had inspired him with an insuperable dislike
to the Homoousion ; but his timid conscience was
alarmed by the impiety of Aetius. The guilt of that
atheist was aggravated by the suspicious favour of the
unfortunate Gallus ; and even the deaths of the
Imperial ministers who had been massacred at Antioch
406 THE DECLINE AND FALL ad.
were imputed to the suggestions of that dangerous
sophist. The mind of Coustantius, which could neither
be moderated by reason nor fixed by faith, was blindly
impelled to either side of the dark and empty abyss by
his horror of the opposite extreme : he alternately
embraced and condemned the sentiments, he succes-
sively banished and recalled the leaders, of the Ariau
and Semi-Ariau factions. During the season of public
business or festivity, he employed whole days, and
even nights, in selecting the words, and weighing the
syllables, which composed his fluctuating creeds. The
subject of his meditation still pursued and occupied
his slumbers ; the incoherent dreams of the emperor
were received as celestial visions ; and he accepted
with complacency the lofty title of bishop of bishops,
from those ecclesiastics who forgot the interest of their
order for the gratification of their passions. The de-
sign of establishing an uniformity of doctrine, which
had engaged him to convene so many synods in Gaul,
Italy, lUyricum, and Asia, was repeatedly baffled by
his own levity, by the divisions of the Arians, and by
the resistance of the Catholics ; and he resolved, as
the last and decisive effort, imperiously to dictate the
decrees of a general council. The destructive earth-
quake of Nicomedia, the difficulty of finding a con-
venient place, and perhaps some secret motives of
policy, produced an alteration in the summons. Tlie
bishops of the East were directed to meet at Seleucia,
in Isauria ; while those of the West held their delibera-
tions at Rimini, on the coast of the Hadriatic ; and,
instead of two or three deputies from each province,
the whole episcopal body was ordered to march. Tlie
eastern council, after consuming four days in fierce
and unavailing debate, separated without any definite
conclusion. The council of the West was protracted
till the seventh month. Taurus, the Praetorian prae-
fect, was instructed not to dismiss the prelates till they
should all be united in the same opinion ; and his
eflforts were supported by a power of banishing fifteen
of the most refractory, and a promise of the consulship
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 407
if he achieved so difficult an adventure. His prayers
and threats, the authority of the sovereign, the so-
phistry of Valens and Ursacius, the distress of cold
and hunger, and the tedious melancholy of a hopeless
exile, at length extorted the reluctant consent of the
bishops of Rimini. The deputies of the East and of
the \Vest attended the emperor in the palace of Con-
stantinople, and he enjoyed the satisfaction of imposing
on the world a profession of faith which established
the likeness, without expressing the consubstantiality ,
of the Son of God. But the triumph of Arianism had
been preceded by the removal of the orthodox clergy,
whom it was impossible either to intimidate or to
corrupt ; and the reign of Constantius was disgraced
by the unjust and ineffectual persecution of the great
Athanasius.
We have seldom an opportunity of observing, either
in active or speculative life, what effect may be pro-
duced, or what obstacles may be surmounted, by the
force of a single mind when it is inflexibly applied to
the pursuit of a single object. The immortal name of
Athanasius ^ will never be separated from the Catholic
doctrine of the Trinity, to whose defence he consecrated
every moment and every faculty of his being. Edu-
cated in the family of Alexander, he had vigorously
opposed the early progress of the Arian heresy : he
exercised the important functions of secretary under
the aged prelate ; and the fathers of the Nicene council
beheld, with surprise and respect, the rising virtues of
39 We may regret that Gregory Nazianzen composed a
panegyric instead of a life of Athanasius ; but we should
enjoy and improve the advantage of drawing our most authentic
materials from the rich fund of his own epistles and apologies
(tom. i. pp. 670-951). I shall not imitate the example of Socrates
(1. ii. c. i), who published the first edition of his history without
giving himself the trouble to consult the writings of Athanasius.
Yet even Socrates, the more curious Sozomen, and the learned
Theodoret, connect the life of Athanasius with the series of
ecclesiastical history. The diligence of Tillemont (tom. viii.)
and of the Benedictine editors has collected every fact, and ex-
amined every difficulty.
408 THE DECLINE AND FALL
the young deacon. In a time of public danger, the
dull claims of age and of rank are sometimes super-
seded ; and within five months after his return from
Nice, the deacon Athanasius was seated on the archi-
episcopal throne of Egypt. He filled that eminent
station above forty-six years, and his long administra-
tion was spent in a perpetual combat against the powers
of Ariauism. Five times was Athanasius expelled from
his throne ; twenty years he passed as an exile or a
fugitive ; and almost every province of the Roman
empire was successively witness to his merit, and his
sufferings in the cause of the Homoousion, which he
considered as the sole pleasure and business, as the
duty, and as the glory, of his life. Amidst the storms
of persecution, the archbishop of Alexandria was patient
of labour, jealous of fame, careless of safety ; and,
although his mind was tainted by the contagion of
fanaticism, Athanasius displayed a superiority of char-
acter and abilities, which would have qualified him,
far better than the degenerate sons of Constantine, for
the government of a great monarchy. His learning
was much less profound and extensive than that of
Eusebius of Caesarea, and his rude eloquence could not
be compared with the polished oratory of Gregory or
Basil ; but, whenever the primate of Egypt was called
upon to justify his sentiments or his conduct, his un-
premeditated style, either of speaking or writing, was
clear, forcible, and persuasive. He has always been
revered in the orthodox school, as one of the most
accurate masters of the Christian theology ; and he
was supposed to possess two profane sciences, less
adapted to the episcopal character, the knowledge of
jurisprudence and that of divination. Some fortunate
conjectures of future events, which impartial reasoners
might ascribe to the experience and judgment of
Athanasius, were attributed by his friends to heavenly
inspiration, and imputed by his enemies to infernal
magic.
But, as Athanasius was continually engaged with
the prejudices and passions of every order of men.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 409
from the monk to the emperor, the knowledge of
human nature was his first and most important science.
He preserved a distinct and unbroken view of a scene
which was incessantly shifting ; and never failed to
improve those decisive moments which are irrecover-
ably past before they are perceived by a common eye.
The archbishop of Alexandria was capable of distin-
guishing how far he might boldly command, and
where he must dexterously insinuate ; how long he
might contend with power, and when he must with-
draw from persecution ; and, while he directed the
thunders of the church against heresy and rebellion,
he could assume, in the bosom of his own party, the
flexible and indulgent temper of a prudent leader.
The election of Athanasius has not escaped the re-
proach of irregularity and precipitation ; ^ but the
propriety of his behaviour conciliated the affections
both of the clergy and of the people. The Alex-
andrians were impatient to rise in arms for the de-
fence of an eloquent and liberal pastor. In his distress
he always derived support, or at least consolation,
from the faithful attachment of his parochial clergy ;
and the hundred bishops of Egypt adhered, with
unshaken zeal, to the cause of Athanasius. In the
modest equipage which pride and policy would affect,
he frequently performed the episcopal visitation of his
provinces, from the mouth of the Nile to the confines
of Ethiopia ; familiarly conversing with the meanest
of the populace, and humbly saluting the saints and
hermits of the desert.*^ Nor was it only in ecclesi-
astical assemblies, among men whose education and
manners were similar to his own, that Athanasius
•10 The irregular ordination of Athanasius was slightly men-
tioned in the councils which were held against him ; but it can
scarcely be supposed that the assembly of the bishops of Egypt
would solemnly attest a public falsehood.
41 Athanasius himself, who did not disdain to compose the
life of his friend Anthony, has carefully observed how often the
holy monk deplored and prophesied the mischiefs of the Arian
heresy. Athanas. tom. ii. pp. 492, 498, &c.
410 THE DECLINE AND FALL ad.
displayed the ascendancy of his genius. He appeared
with easy and respectful firmness in the courts of
princes ; and in the various turns of his prosperous
and adverse fortune, he never lost the confidence of
his friends or the esteem of his enemies.
In his youth, the primate of Egypt resisted the
great Constantino, who had repeatedly signified his
will that Arius should be restored to the Catholic
communion. ''^ The emperor respected, and might
forgive, this inflexible resolution ; and the faction who
considered Athanasius as their most formidable enemy
were constrained to dissemble their hatred, and
silently to prepare an indirect and distant assault,
Tliey scattered rumours and suspicions, represented
the archbishop as a proud and oppressive tyrant, and
boldly accused him of violating the treaty which had
been ratified in the Nicene council with the schismatic
followers of Meletius.*^ Athanasius had openly dis-
approved that ignominious peace, and the emperor was
disposed to believe that he had abused his ecclesiastical
and civil power, to persecute those odious sectaries ;
that he had sacrilegiously broken a chalice in one of
their churches of Mareotis : that he had whipped or
imprisoned six of their bishops ; and that Arsenius, a
seventh bishop of the same party, had been murdered,
or at least mutilated, by the cruel hand of the
primate.'" These charges, which affected his honour
42 At first Constantine threatened in speaking, but requested
in writing, koX aypd<P(j}s fih rjireiXet, ypd(p(t}v S^, rj^Lov. His
letters gradually assumed a menacing tone ; but, while he re-
quired that the entrance of the church should be open to all,
he avoided the odious name of Arius. Athanasius, like a skilful
politician, has accurately marked these distinctions, which
allowed him some scope for excuse and delay.
43 The Meletians in Egypt, like the Donatists in Africa, were
produced by an episcopal quarrel which arose from the perse-
cution. I have not leisure to pursue the obscure controversy,
which seems to have been misrepresented by the partiality of
Athanasius, and the ignorance of Epiphanius.
** The treatment of the six bishops is specified by Sozomen
(1. ii. c. 25) ; but Athanasius himself, so copious on the subject
332-335 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 411
and his life, were referred by Constantine to his
brother Dalmatius the censor, who resided at Antioch ;
the synods of Caesarea and Tyre were successively con-
vened ; and the bishops of the East were instructed to
judjje the cause of Athanasius before they proceeded
to consecrate the new church of the Resurrection at
Jerusalem. The primate mi^ht be conscious of his
innocence ; but he was sensible that the same implac-
able spirit which had dictated the accusation would
direct the proceeding, and pronounce the sentence.
He prudently declined the tribunal of his enemies,
despised the summons of the synod of Csesarea ; and,
after a long- and artful delay, submitted to the per-
emptory commands of the emperor, who threatened
to punish his criminal disobedience if he refused to
appear in the council of Tyre.*° Before Athanasius,
at the head of fifty Egyptian prelates, sailed from
Alexandria, he had wisely secured the alliance of the
Meletians ; and Arsenius himself, his imaginary victim
and his secret friend, was privately concealed in his
train. The synod of Tyre was conducted by Eusebius
of Csesarea with more passion, and with less art, than
his learning and experience might promise ; his
numerous faction repeated the names of homicide and
tyrant ; and their clamours were encouraged by the
seeming patience of Athanasius ; who expected the
decisive moment to produce Arsenius alive and un-
hurt in the midst of the assembly. The nature of the
other charges did not admit of such clear and satis-
factory replies ; yet the archbishop was able to prove
that, in the village where he was accused of breaking
a consecrated chalice, neither church nor altar nor
chalice could really exist. The Arians, who had
secretly determined the guilt and condemnation of
of Arsenius and the chalice, leaves this grave accusation without
a reply,
45 The emperor, in his epistle of Convocation (Euseb. in Vit.
Constant. 1. iv. c. 42), seems to prejudge some members of the
clergy, and it was more than probable that the synod would
apply those reproaches to Athanasius.
412 THJi: DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
their enemy, attempted, however, to disguise their
injustice by the imitation of judicial forms : the synod
appointed an episcopal commission of six delegates to
collect evidence on the spot ; and this measure, which
was vigorously opposed by the Egyptian bishops,
opened new scenes of violence and perjury. After
the return of the deputies from Alexandria, the
majority of the council pronounced the final sentence
of degradation and exile against the primate of Egypt.
The decree, expressed in the fiercest language of
malice and revenge, was communicated to the emperor
and the Catholic church ; and the bishops immedi-
ately resumed a mild and devout aspect, such as
became their holy pilgrimage to the sepulchre of
Christ.
But the injustice of these ecclesiastical judges had
not been countenanced by the submission, or even by
the presence, of Athauasius. He resolved to make
a bold and dangerous experiment, whether the throne
was inaccessible to the voice of truth ; and, before
the final sentence could be pronounced at Tyre, the
intrepid primate threw himself into a bark which was
ready to hoist sail for the Imperial city. The request
of a formal audience might have been opposed or
eluded ; but Athanasius concealed his arrival, watched
the moment of Constantino's return from an adjacent
villa, and boldly encountered his angry sovereign as
he passed on horseback through the principal street
of Constantinople. So strange an apparition excited
his surprise and indignation ; and the guards were
ordered to remove the importunate suitor ; but his
resentment was subdued by involuntary respect ; and
the haughty spirit of the emperor was awed by the
courage and eloquence of a bishop, who implored his
justice and awakened his conscience.*^ Constantino
listened to the complaints of Athanasius with impartial
and even gracious attention ; the members of the
46 In a church dedicated to St. Athanasius this situation
would afford a better subject for a picture than most of the
stories of miracles and martyrdoms.
338-341 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 413
syuod of Tyre were summoned to justify their pro-
ceedings ; and the arts of the Eusebian faction would
have been confounded^ if they had not aggravated
the guilt of the primate by the dexterous supposition
of an unpardonable offence ; a criminal design to
intercept and detain the corn -fleet of Alexandria,
which supplied the subsistence of the new capital.*^
The emperor was satisfied that the peace of Egypt
would be secured by the absence of a popular leader ;
but he refused to fill the vacancy of the archiepiscopal
throne ; and the sentence which, after a long hesita-
tion, he pronounced was that of a jealous ostracism,
rather than of an ignominious exile. In the remote
province of Gaul, but in the hospitable court of Treves,
Athanasius passed about twenty-eight months. The
death of the emperor changed the face of public
affairs ; and, amidst the general indulgence of a young
reign, the primate was restored to his country by an
honoural)le edict of the younger Constantine, who
expressed a deep sense of the innocence and merit
of his venerable guest. '^'^
The death of that prince exposed Athanasius to a
second persecution ; and the feeble Constantius, the
sovereign of the East, soon became the secret accom-
plice of the Eusebians. Ninety bishops of that sect
or faction assembled at Antioch, under the specious
pretence of dedicating the cathedral. They com-
47 Eunapius has related (in Vit. Sophist, pp. 36, 37. edit.
Commelin) a strange example of the cruelty and credulity of
Constantine on a similar occasion. The eloquent Sopater, a
Syrian philosopher, enjoyed his friendship, and provoked the
resentment of Ablavius, his Praetorian praefect. The corn-fleet
was detained for want of a south wind ; the people of Con-
stantinople were discontented ; and Sopater was beheaded,
on a charge that he had bound the winds by the power of
magic. Suidas adds that Constantine wished to prove, by this
execution, that he had absolutely renounced the superstition
of the Gentiles.
48 In his return he saw Constantius twice, at Viminiacum
and at Caesarea in Cappadocia. Tillemont supposes that Con-
stantine introduced him to the meeting of the three royal brothers
in Pannonia.
414 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
posed an ambiguous creed^ which is faintly tinged
with the colours of Semi-Arianism, and twenty-five
canons, which still regulate the discipline of the
orthodox Greeks. It was decided_, with some ap-
pearance of equity, that a bishop, deprived by a
synod, should not resume his episcopal fiinctions, till
he had been absolved by the judgment of an equal
synod ; the law was immediately applied to the case
of Athanasius, the council of Antioch pronounced,
or rather confirmed, his degradation : a stranger,
named Gregory, was seated on his throne; and Phila-
grius,*^ the praefect of Egypt, was instructed to sup-
port the new primate with the civil and military
powers of the province. Oppressed by the conspiracy
of the Asiatic prelates Athanasius withdrew from
Alexandria, and passed three ^ years as an exile and
a suppliant on the holy threshold of the Vatican.
By the assiduous study of the Latin language, he
soon qualified himself to negotiate with the western
clergy ; his decent flattery swayed and directed the
haughty Julius : the Roman Pontiif was persuaded
to consider his appeal as the peculiar interest of the
Apostolic see ; and his innocence was unanimously
declared in a council of fifty bishops of Italy. At
the end of three years, the primate was summoned to
the court of Milan by the emperor Constaus, who, in
the indulgence of unlawful pleasures, still professed
a lively regard for the orthodox faith. The cause of
truth and justice was promoted by the influence of
*8 This magistrate, so odious to Athanasius, is praised by
Gregory Nazianzen, torn. i. Orat. xxi. pp. 390, 391.
Saepe premente Deo fert Deus alter opem.
For the credit of human nature, I am always pleased to discover
some good qualities in those men whom party has represented
as tyrants and monsters.
w The chronological difficulties which perplex the residence
of Athanasius at Rome are strenuously agitated by Valesius
(Observat. ad Calcem, tom. ii. Hist. Eccles. 1. i. c. 1-5) and
Tilleiiiont(M6m. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 674. «&c.), I have followed
the simple hypothesis of Valesius, who allows only one journey,
after the intrusion of Gregory.
349 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 416
gold/i and the ministers of Constans advised their
sovereign to require the convocation of an ecclesias-
tical assembly, which might act as the representatives
of the Catholic church. Ninety-four bishops of the
West, seventy-six bishops of the East, encountered
each other at Sardica on the verge of the two empires,
but in the dominions of the protector of Athanasius.
Their debates soon degenerated into hostile alterca-
tions ; the Asiatics, apprehensive for their personal
safety, retired to Philippopolis in Thrace ; and the
rival synods reciprocally hurled their spiritual thunders
against their enemies, whom they piously condemned
as the enemies of the true God. Their decrees were
published and ratified in their respective provinces ;
and Athanasius, who in the West was revered as a
saint, was exposed as a criminal to the abhorrence of
the East.^^ The council of Sardica reveals the first
symptoms of discord and schism between the Greek
and Latin churches, which were separated by the
accidental difference of faith and the permanent dis-
tinction of language.
During the second exile in the West, Athanasius
was frequently admitted to the Imperial presence ;
at Capua, Lodi, Milan, Verona, Padua, Aquileia, and
Treves, The bishop of the diocese usually assisted at
these interviews ; the master of the offices stood before
the veil or curtain of the sacred apartment ; and the
uniform moderation of the primate might be attested
by these respectable witnesses, to whose evidence he
solemnly appeals. ^^ Prudence would undoubtedly
51 If any corruption was used to promote the interest of re-
ligion, an advocate of Athanasius might justify or excuse this
questionable conduct by tl:e example of Cato and Sidney ; the
former of whom is said to have given, and the latter to have re-
ceived, a bribe, in the cause of liberty.
52 The Canon which allows appeals to the Roman pontiffs
has almost raised the council of Sardica to the dignity of a
general council ; and its acts have been ignorantly or artfully
confounded with those of the Nicene synod.
53 As Athanasius dispersed secret invectives against Con-
stantius (see the Epistle to the Monks), at the same time that
416 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d,
suggest the mild and respectful tone that became a
subject and a bishop. In these familiar conferences
with the sovereign of the VV^est^ Athanasius might
lament the error of Constantius ; but he boldly
arraigned the guilt of his eunuchs and his Arian
prelates ; deplored the distress and danger of the
Catholic church ; and excited Constans to emulate
the zeal and glory of his father. The emperor de-
clared his resolution of employing the troops and
treasures of Europe in the orthodox cause ; and
signified^ by a concise and peremptory epistle to his
brother Constantius, that, unless he consented to the
immediate restoration of Athanasius, he himself, with
a fleet and army, would seat the archbishop on the
throne of Alexandria. -^^ But this religious war, so
horrible to nature, was prevented by the timely com-
pliance of Constantius ; and the emperor of the PZast
condescended to solicit a reconciliation with a subject
whom he had injured. Athanasius waited with decent
pride, till he had received three successive epistles
full of the strongest assurances of the protection,
the favour, and the esteem of his sovereign ; who in-
vited him to resume his episcopal seat, and who added
the humiliating precaution of engaging his principal
ministers to attest the sincerity of his intentions.
They were manifested in a still more public manner
by the strict orders which were despatched into Egypt
to recall the adherents of Athanasius, to restore their
privileges, to proclaim their innocence, and to erase
from the public registers the illegal proceedings which
had been obtained during the prevalence of the Eusebiaa
faction. After every satisfaction and security had been
given, which justice or even delicacy could require,
the primate proceeded, by slow journeys, through the
he assured him of his profound respect, we might distrust the
professions of the archbishop.
^ Notwithstanding the discreet silence of Athanasius, and
the manifest forgery of a letter inserted by Socrates, the^e
menaces are proved by the unquestionable evidence of Luciler
of Cagliari, and even of Constantius himself.
351-355 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 417
provinces of Thrace, Asia, and Syria ; and his progress
was marked by the abject homage of the oriental
bishops, who excited his contempt without deceiving
his penetration. °° At Antioch he saw the emperor
Constantius ; sustained, with modest firmness, the
embraces and protestations of his master^ and eluded
the proposal of allowing the Arians a single church
at Alexandria, by claiming^ in the other cities of the
empire, a similar toleration for his own party ; a reply
•which might have appeared just and moderate in the
mouth of an independent prince. The entrance of
the archbishop into his capital was a triumphal pro-
cession ; absence and persecution had endeared him
to the Alexandrians ; his authority, which he exercised
with rigour, was more firmly established ; and his fame
was diffused from jSlthiopia to Britain, over the whole
extent of the Christian world.
But the subject who has reduced his prince to the
necessity of dissembling can never expect a sincere and
lasting forgiveness ; and the tragic fate of Constans
soon deprived Athanasius of a powerful and generous
protector. The civil war between the assassin and
the only surviving brother of Constans, which afilicted
the empire above three years, secured an interval of
repose to the Catholic church ; and the two con-
tending parties were desirous to conciliate the friend-
ship of a bishop who, by the weight of his personal
authority, might determine the fluctuating resolutions
of an important province. He gave audience to the
ambassadors of the tyrant, with whom he was after-
wards accused of holding a secret correspondence ; °^
55 I have always entertained some doubts concerning the
retractation of Ursacius and Valens. Their epistles to Julius,
bishop of Rome, and to Athanasius himself, are of so different
a cast from each other that they cannot both be genuine. The
one speaks the language of criminals who confess their guilt
and infamy ; the other of enemies who solicit on equal terras an
honourable reconciliation.
5^ Athanasius (torn. i. pp. 677, 678) defends his innocence by
pathetic complaints, solemn assertions, and specious arguments.
He admits that letters had been forged in his name, but he re-
VOL. 11. O
418 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
aud the emperor Constautius repeatedly assured his
dearest father, the most revereud Athauasius, that,
notwithstanding the malicious rumours which were
circulated by their common enemies, he had inherited
the sentiments, as well as the throne, of his deceased
brother. Gratitude and humanity would have disposed
the primate of Eg-ypt to deplore the untimely fate of
Constaus, and to abhor the guilt of Magnentius ; but,
as he clearly understood that the apprehensions of
Constantius were his only safeguard, the fervour of
his prayers for the success of the righteous cause might
perhaps be somewhat abated. The ruin of Athanasius
was no longer contrived by the obscure malice of a
few bigoted or angry bishops, who abused the authority
of a credulous monarch. The monarch himself avowed
the resolution, which he had so long suppressed, of
avenging his private injuries ; ^^ and the first winter
after his victory, which he passed at Aries, was em-
ployed against an enemy more odious to him than the
vanciuished tyrant of Gaul.
If the emperor had capriciously decreed the death
of the most eminent and virtuous citizen of the re-
public, the cruel order would have been executed
without hesitation, by the ministers of open violence
or of specious injustice. The caution, the delay, the
difficulty with which he proceeded in the condemnation
aud punishment of a popular bishop, discovered to the
world that the [)rivileges of the church had already
revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman
government. The sentence which was pronounced in
the synod of Tyre, and subscribed by a large majority
of the eastern bishops, had never been expressly re-
pealed ; and, as Athanasius had been once degraded
from his episcopal dignity by the judgment of his
quests that his own secretaries, and those of the tyrant, may be
examined, whether those letters had been written by the former
or received by the latter.
" The emperor .ieclared that he was more desirous to
subdue Athanasius than he had been to vanquish Magnentius
or Sylvanus.
351-355 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 419
brethren, every subsequent act might be considered as
irregular, and even criminal. But the memory of the
firm and effectual support which the primate of Egypt
had derived from the attachment of the western church
engaged Constantius to suspend the execution of the
sentence, till he had obtained the concurrence of the
Latin bishops. Two years vvere consumed in ecclesias-
tical negotiations ; and the important cause between
the emperor and one of his subjects was solemnly
debated, first in the synod of Aries, and afterv^ards in
the great council of Milan/^ which consisted of above
three hundred bishops. Their integrity was gradually
undermined by the arguments of the Arians, the
dexterity of the eunuchs, and the pressing solicitations
of a prince, who gratified his revenge at the expense
of his dignity, and exposed his own passions, whilst he
influenced those of the clergy. Corruption, the most
infallible symptom of constitutional liberty, was suc-
cessfully practised : honours, gifts, and immunities
were offered and accepted as the price of an episcopal
vote ; °^ and the condemnation of the Alexandrian
primate was artfully represented as the only measure
which could restore the peace and union of the Catholic
church. The friends of Athanasius were not, however,
wanting to their leader, or to their cause. With a
manly spirit, which the sanctity of their character
rendered less dangerous, they maintained in public
debate, and in private conference with the emperor,
the eternal obligation of religion and justice. They
declared that neither the hope of his favour nor the
58 The affairs of the council of Milan are so imperfectly and
erroneously related by the Greek writers that we must rejoice in
the supply of some letters of Eusebius, extracted by Baronius
from the archives of the church of Vercellse, and of an old life
of Dionysius of Milan, published by Bollandus.
59 The honours, presents, feasts, which seduced so many
bishops, are mentioned with indignation by those who were too
pure or too proud to accept them. " We combat (says Hilary
of Poitiers) against Constantius the antichrist ; who strokes the
belly instead of scourging the back ; " qui non dorsa caedit, sed
ventrem palpat.
420 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
fear of his displeasure should prevail on them to join
in the condemnation of an absent, an innocent, a
respectable brother. They affirmed, with apparent
reason, that the illegal and obsolete decrees of the
council of Tyre had long since been tacitly abolished
by the Imperial edicts, the honourable re-establishment
of the archbishop of Alexandria, and the silence or
recantation of his most clamorous adversaries. They
alleged that his innocence had been attested by the
unanimous bishops of Egypt, and had been acknow-
ledged, in the councils of Rome and Sardica,^ by the
impartial judgment of the Latin church. They de-
plored the hard condition of Athanasius, who, after
enjoying so many years his seat, his reputation, and
the seeming confidence of his sovereign, was again
called upon to confute the most groundless and ex-
travagant accusations. Their language was specious ;
their conduct was honourable : but in this long and
obstinate contest, which fixed the eyes of the whole
empire on a single bishop, the ecclesiastical factions
were prepared to sacrifice truth and justice to the
more interesting object of defending, or removing, the
intrepid champion of the Nicene faith. The Arians
still thought it prudent to disguise, in ambiguous
language, their real sentiments and designs : but the
orthodox bishops, armed with the favour of the people
and the decrees of a general council, insisted on every
occasion, and particularly at Milan, that their adver-
saries should purge themselves from the suspicion of
heresy, before they presumed to arraign the conduct
of the great Athanasius.
But the voice of reason (if reason was indeed on the
side of Athanasius) was silenced by the clamours of a
factious or venal majority ; and the councils of Aries
60 More properly by* the orthodox part of the council of
Sardica. If the bishops of both parties had fairly voted, the
division would have been 94 to 76. M. de Tillemont (see t. viii.
pp. 1147-1158) is justly surprised that so small a majority should
have proceeded so vigorously against their adversaries, the
principal of whom they immediately deposed.
355 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 421
and Milan were not dissolved^ till the archbishop of
Alexandria had been solemnly condemned and deposed
by the judgment of the Western^ as well as of the
Eastern, church. The bishops who had opposed, were
required to subscribe, the sentence ; and to unite in
religious communion with the suspected leaders of the
adverse party. A formulary of consent was transmitted
by the messengers of state to the absent bishops : and
all those who refused to submit their private opinion
to the public and inspired wisdom of the councils of
Aries and Milan were immediately banished by the
emperor, who affected to execute the decrees of the
Catholic church. Among those prelates who led the
honourable band of confessors and exiles, Liberius of
Rome, Osius of Cordova, Paulinus of Treves, Dionysius
of Milan, Eusebius of Vercellae, Lucifer of Cagliari,
and Hilary of Poitiers, may deserve to be particularly
distinguished. The eminent station of Liberius, who
governed the capital of the empire ; the personal merit
and long experience of the venerable Osius, who was
revered as the favourite of the great Constantine, and
the father of the Nicene faith ; placed those prelates
at the head of the Latin church : and their example,
either of submission or resistance, would probably be
imitated by the episcopal crowd. But the repeated
attempts of the emperor to seduce or to intimidate the
bishops of Rome and Cordova were for some time
ineffectual. The Spaniard declared himself ready to
suffer under Constantius, as he had suffered threescore
years before under his grandfather Maximian. The
Roman, in the presence of his sovereign, asserted the
innocence of Athanasius, and his own freedom. When
he was banished to Bercsa in Thrace, he sent back a
large sum which had been offered for the accommoda-
tion of his journey ; and insulted the court of Milan
by the haughty remark that the emperor and his
eunuchs might want that gold to pay their soldiers
and their bishops. The resolution of Liberius and
Osius was at length subdued by the hardships of exile
and confinement. The Roman pontiff purchased his
422 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
return hy some criminal compliances ; and afterwards
expiated his eruilt by a seasonable repentance. Per-
suasion and violence were employed to extort the
reluctant signature of the decrepit bishop of Cordova,
whose strength was broken, and whose faculties were
perhaps impaired, by the weight of an hundred years ;
and the insolent triumph of the Arians provoked some
of the orthodox party to treat with inhuman severity
the character, or rather the memory, of an unfortunate
old man, to whose former services Christianity itself
was so deeply indebted. ^^
The fall of Liberius and Osius reflected a brighter
lustre on the firmness of those bishops who still
adhered, with unshaken fidelity, to the cause of
Athanasius and religious truth. The ingenious malice
of their enemies had deprived them of the benefit of
mutual comfort and advice, separated those illustrious
exiles into distant provinces, and carefully selected the
most inhospitable spots of a great empire.^^ Yet they
soon experienced that the deserts of Libya and the most
barbarous tracts of Cappadocia were less inhospitable
than the residence of those cities in which an Arian
bishop could satiate, without restraint, the exquisite
rancour of theological hatred. Their consolation was
derived from the consciousness of rectitude and in-
dependence, from the applause, the visits, the letters,
and the liberal alms of their adherents, and from the
satisfaction which they soon enjoyed of observing the
61 The life of Osius is collected by Tillemont (tom. vii. pp.
524-561), who in the most extravagant terms first admires, and
then reprobates, the bishop of Cordova. In the midst of their
lamentations on his fall, the prudence of Athannsius may be
distinguished from the blind and intemperate zeal of Hilary.
^'- The confessors of the West were successively banished to
the deserts of Arabia or Thebais, the lonely places of Mount
Taurus, the wildest parts of Phrygia, which were in the
possession of the impious Montanists, &c. When the heretic
Aetius was too favourably entertained at Mopsuestia in Cilicia,
the place of his exile was changed, by the advice of Acacius,
to Amblada, a district inhabited by savages and infested by war
and pestilence. .
Sob OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 423
intestine divisions of the adversaries of the Nicene
faith. Such was the nice and capricious taste of the
emperor Constantius, and so easily was he offended by
tlie slightest deviation from his imaginary standard of
Ciiristian truth^ that he persecuted^ with equal zeal,
those who defended the consuhstantiality, those who
asserted the similar ,fub.stance, and those who denied
the likeness, of the Son of God. Three bishops, de-
graded and banished for those adverse opinions, might
possibly meet in the same place of exile ; and, accord-
ing to the difference of their temper might either
pity or insult the blind enthusiasm of their antagonists,
whose present sufferings would never be compensated
by future happiness.
The disgrace and exile of the orthodox bishops of
tlie ^V^est were designed as so many preparatory steps
tri the ruin of Athanasius himself. Six and twenty
months had elapsed, during which the Imperial court
secretly laboured, by the most insidious arts, to remove
him from Alexandria, and to withdraw the allowance
which supplied his popular liberality. But, when the
primate of Egypt, deserted and proscribed by the
Latin church, was left destitute of any foreign sup-
port, Constantius despatched two of his secretaries
with a verbal commission to announce and execute
the order of his banishment. As the justice of the
sentence was publicly avowed by the whole party, the
only motive which could restrain Constantius from
giving his messengers the sanction of a written man-
date must be imputed to his doubt of the event ; and
to a sense of the danger to which he might expose the
second city, and the most fertile province of the empire,
if the people should persist in the resolution of de-
fending, by force of arms, the innocence of their
spiritual father. Such extreme caution afforded Atha-
nasius a specious pretence respectfully to dispute the
truth of an order, which he could not reconcile either
with the equity, or with the former declarations, of
his gracious master. The civil powers of Egypt found
themselves inadequate to the task of persuading or
424 THE DECLINE AND FALL
compelling the primate to abdicate his episcopal throne ;
and they were obliged to conclude a treaty with the
popular leaders of Alexandria, by which it was stipu-
lated that all proceedings and hostilities should be
suspended till the emperor's pleasure had been more
distinctly ascertained. By this seeming moderation,
the Catholics were deceived into a false and fatal
security ; while the legions of the Upper Egypt and
of Libya advanced, by secret orders and hasty marches,
to besiege, or rather to surprise, a capital habituated
to sedition and inflamed by religious zeal.^^ The
position of Alexandria, between the sea and the lake
Mareotis, facilitated the approach and landing of the
troops ; who were introduced into the heart of the
city, before any effectual measures could be taken
either to shut the gates or to occupy the important
posts of defence. At the hour of midnight, twenty-
three days after the signature of the treaty, Syrianus,
duke of Egypt, at the head of five thousand soldiers,
armed and prepared for an assault, unexpectedly in-
vested the church of St. Theonas, where the archbishop,
with a party of his clergy and people, performed their
nocturnal devotions. The doors of the sacred edifice
yielded to the impetuosity of the attack, which was
accompanied with every horrid circumstance of tumult
and bloodshed ; but, as the bodies of the slain and the
fragm.ents of military weapons remained the next day
an unexceptionable evidence in the possession of the
Catholics, the enterprise of Syrianus may be considered
as a successful irruption, rather than as an absolute
conquest. The other churches of the city were pro-
faned by similar outrages ; and, during at least four
months, Alexandria was exposed to the insults of a
licentious army, stimulated by the ecclesiastics of an
hostile faction. Many of the faithful were killed ;
w Athanasius had lately sent for Anthony and some of his
chosen Monks. They descended from their mountain, an-
nounced to the Alexandrians the sanctity of Athanasius, and
were honourably conducted by the archbishop as far as the gates
of the city.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 426
who may deserve the name of martyrs, if their deaths
were neither provoked nor revenged ; bishops and
presbyters were treated with cruel ignominy ; conse-
crated virgins were stripped naked, scourged, and
violated ; the houses of wealthy citizens were
plundered ; and, under the mask of religious zeal,
lust, avarice, and private resentment were gratified
with impunity, and even with applause. The Pagans
of Alexandria, who still formed a numerous and dis-
contented party, were easily persuaded to desert a
bishop whom they feared and esteemed. The hopes
of some peculiar favours, and the apprehension ol
being involved in the general penalties of rebellion,
engaged them to promise their support to the destined
successor of Athanasius, the famous George of Cappa-
docia. The usurper, after receiving the consecration
of an Arian synod, was placed on the episcopal throne
by the arms of Sebastian, who had been appointed
Count of Egypt for the execution of that important
design. In the use, as well as in the acquisition,
of power, the tyrant George disregarded the laws of
religion, of justice, and of humanity ; and the same
scenes of violence and scandal which had been ex-
hibited in the capital were repeated in more than
ninety episcopal cities of Egypt. Encouraged by
success, Constantius ventured to approve the conduct
of his ministers. By a public and passionate epistle,
the emperor congratulates the deliverance of Alexandria
from a popular tyrant, who deluded his blind votaries
by the magic of his eloquence ; expatiates on the virtues
and piety of the m.ost reverend George, the elected
bishop ; and aspires, as the patron and benefactor of
the city, to surpass the fame of Alexander himself.
But he solemnly declares his unalterable resolution to
pursue with fire and sword the seditious adherents of
the wicked Athanasius, who, by flying from justice,
has confessed his guilt, and escaped the ignominious
death which he had so often deserved.^
^ The emperor, or his Arian secretaries, while they express
their resentment, betray their fears and esteem of Athanasius.
VOL. II. o 2
426 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
Athanasius had iudeed escaped from the most
immineul daugers ; and the adventures of that extra-
ordinary man deserve and fix our attention. On the
memorable night when the church of St. Theouas was
invested by the troops of Syrianus, the archbishop,
seated on his throne, expected, with calm and intrepid
dignity, the approach of death. While the public
devotion was interrupted by shouts of rage and cries
of terror, he animated his trembling congregation to
express their religious confidence, by chanting one of
the psalms of David, which celebrates the triumph
of the God of Israel over the haughty and impious
tyrant of Egypt. The doors were at length burst
open ; a cloud of arrows was discharged among the
people ; the soldiers, with drawn swords, rushed
forwards into the sanctuary ; and the dreadful gleam
of their armour was reflected by the holy luminaries
which burnt round the altar.^ Athanasius still
rejected the pious importunity of the Monks and
Presbyters, who were attached to his person ; and
nobly refused to desert his episcopal station, till he
had dismissed in safety the last of the congregation.
The darkness and tumult of the night favoured the
retreat of the archbishop ; and, though he was op-
pressed by the waves of an agitated multitude, though
he was thrown to the ground, and left without sense
or motion, he still recovered his undaunted courage,
and eluded the eager search of the soldiers, who were
instructed by their Arian guides that the head of
Athanasius would be the most acceptable present to
the emperor. From that moment the primate of
Egypt disappeared from the eyes of his enemies, and
remained above six years concealed in impenetrable
obscurity.^
«5 These minute circumstances are curious, as they are literally
transcribed from the protest which was publicly presented three
days afterwards by the Catholics of Alexandria.
^•5 The Jansenists have often compared Athanasius and
Arnauld, and have expatiated with pleasure on the faith and
zeal, the merit and exile, of those celebrated doctors.
356-362 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 427
The despotic power of his implacable enemy filled
the whole extent of the Roman world ; and the
exasperated monarch had endeavoured^ by a very
pressing epistle to the Christian princes of Ethiopia,
to exclude Athanasius from the most remote and
sequestered regions of the earth. Counjts^ preefects,
tribunes^ whole armies^ were successively employed
to pursue a bishop and a fugitive ; the vigilance of
the civil and military powers were excited by the
Imperial edicts ; liberal rewards were promised to
the man who should produce Athanasius^ either alive
or dead ; and the most severe penalties were de-
nounced against those who should dare to protect
the public enemy. But the deserts of Thebais were
now peopled by a race of wild yet submissive fanatics^
who preferred the commands of their abbot to the
laws of their sovereign. The numerous disciples of
Anthony and Pachomius received the fugitive primate
as their father, admired the patience and humility
with which he conformed to their strictest institutions,
collected every word which dropt from his lips as the
genuine effusions of inspired wisdom ; and persuaded
themselves that their prayers, their fasts, and their
vigils, were less meritorious than the zeal which they
expressed, and the dangers which they braved, in the
defence of truth and innocence. The monasteries of
Egypt were seated in lonely and desolate places, on
the summit of mountains, or in the islands of the
Nile ; and the sacred horn or trumpet of Tabenne
was the well-known signal which assembled several
thousand robust and determined Monks, who, for the
most part, had been the peasants of the adjacent
country. \Vhen their dark retreats were invaded by
a military force, which it was impossible to resist,
they silently stretched out their necks to the execu-
tioner, and supported their national character that
tortures could never wrest from an Egyptian the con-
fession of a secret which he was resolved not to
disclose. The archbishop of Alexandria, for whose
safety they eagerly devoted their lives, was lost among
428 THE DECLINE AND FALL
a uniform and well-disciplined multitude ; and on the
nearer approach of danger, he was swiftly removed, by
their oflficious hands, from one place of concealment to
another, till he reached the formidable deserts, which
the g^loomy and credulous temper of superstition had
peopled with demons and savage monsters. The re-
tirement of Athanasius, which ended only with the
life of Constantius, was spent, for the most part, in
the society of the Monks, who faithfully served him as
guards, as secretaries, and as messengers ; but the
importance of maintaining a more intimate connection
with the Catholic party tempted him, whenever the
diligence of the pursuit was abated, to emerge from
the desert, to introduce himself into Alexandria, and
to trust his person to the discretion of his friends and
adherents. His various adventures might have fur-
nished the subject of a very entertaining romance.
He was once secreted in a dry cistern, which he had
scarcely left before he was betrayed by the treacliery
of a female slave ;^" and he was once concealed in a
still more extraordinary asylum, the house of a virgin,
only twenty years of age, and who was celebrated in
the whole city for her exquisite beauty. At the hour
of midnight, as she related the story many years after-
wards, she was surprised by the appearance of the
archbishop in a loose undress, who, advancing with
hasty steps, conjured her to afford him the protection
which he had been directed by a celestial vision to
seek under her hospitable roof. The pious maid ac-
cepted and preserved the sacred pledge which was
entrusted to her prudence and courage. Without im-
parting tlie secret to any one, she instantly conducted
Athanasius into her most secret chamber, and watched
over his safety with the tenderness of a friend and the
assiduity of a servant. As long as the danger con-
titiued, she regularly supplied him with books and
provisions, washed his feet, managed his correspond-
^ This and the following story will be rendered impossible,
if we suppose that Athanasius always inhabited the asylum
which he accidentally or occasionally had used.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 429
ence. and dexterously concealed from the eye of sus-
picion this familiar and solitary intercourse between a
saint whose character required the most unblemished
chastity and a female whose charms might excite the
most dangerous emotions. ^^ During the six years of
persecution and exile, Athanasius repeated his visits
to his fair and faithful companion ; and the formal
declaration that he saw the councils of Rimini and
Seleucia forces us to believe that he was secretly
present at the time and place of their convocation.
The advantage of personally negotiating with his
friends, and of observing and improving the divisions
of his enemies, might justify, in a prudent statesman,
so bold and dangerous an enterprise ; and Alexandria
was connected by trade and navigation with every
seaport of the Mediterranean. From the depth of
his inaccessible retreat, the intrepid primate waged an
incessant and offensive war against the protector of
the Arians ; and his seasonable writings, which were
diligently circulated and eagerly perused, contributed
to unite and animate the orthodox party. In his
public apologies, which he addressed to the emperor
himself, he sometimes affected the praise of modera-
tion ; whilst at the same time, in secret and vehement
invectives, he exposed Constantius as a weak and
wicked prince, the executioner of his family, the
tyrant of the republic, and the antichrist of the
church. In the height of his prosperity, the victorious
monarch, who had chastised the rashness of Gallus,
and suppressed the revolt of Sylvanus, who had taken
the diadem from the head of Vetranio, and vanquished
in the field the legions of Magnentius, received from
an invisible hand a wound which he could neither
heal nor revenge ; and the son of Constantine was the
^ Palladius (Hist. Lausiac. c. 136, in Vit. Patr. p. 776), the
original author of this anecdote, had conversed with the damsel,
who in her old age still remembered with pleasure so pious and
honourable a connection, I cannot indulge the delicacy of
Baronius, Valesius, Tillemont, &c. who almost reject a story so
Unworthy, as they deem it, of the gravity of ecclesiastical history.
430 THE DECLINE AND FALL
first of the Christian princes who experienced the
strength of those principles which, in the cause of
religion, could resist the most violent exertions of the
civil power. ^^
The persecution of Athanasius and of so many re-
spectable bishops, who suffered for the truth of their
opinions, or at least for the integrity of their conscience,
was a just subject of indignation and discontent to all
Christians, except those who were blindly devoted to
the Arian faction. The people regretted the loss of
their faithful pastors, whose banishment was usually
followed by the intrusion of a stranger "^^ into the epis-
copal chair ; and loudly complained that the right of
election was violated, and that they were condemned
to obey a mercenary usurper, whose person was un-
known, and whose principles were suspected. The
Catholics might prove to the world that they were not
involved in the guilt and heresy of their ecclesiastical
governor, by publicly testifying their dissent, or by
totally separating themselves from his communion.
The first of these methods was invented at Antioch,
and practised with such success that it was soon diffused
over the Christian world. The doxology or sacred
hymn, which celebrates the ghry of the Trinity, is
susceptible of very nice, but material, inflections ; and
the substance of an orthodox, or an heretical, creed
may be expressed by the difi"erence of a disjunctive, or
89 The Epistle of Athanasius to the Monks is filled with re-
proaches, which the public must feel to be true (vol. i. pp. 834,
856); and, in compliment to his readers, he has introduced the
comparisons of Pharaoh, Ahab, Belshazzar, &c. The boldness
of Hilary was attended with less danger, if he published his
invective in Gaul after the revolt of Julian ; but Lucifer sent
his libels to Constantius, and almost challenged the reward of
martyrdom.
70 Athanasius (tom. i. p. 811) complains in general of this
practice, which he afterwards exemplifies (p. 861) in the pre-
tended election of Felix. Three eunuchs represented the
Roman people, and three prelates, who followed the court,
assumed the functions of the bishops of the Suburbicarian
provinces.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 431
a copulative, particle. Alternate responses, and a
more regular psalmody, were introduced into the
public service by Flavianus and Diodorus, two devout
and active laymen, who were attached to the Nicene
faith. Under their conduct, a swarm of monks issued
from the adjacent desert, bands of well-disciplined
singers were stationed in the cathedral of Antioch, the
Glory to the Father, and the Son, axd the Ploly Ghost,"^
was triumphantly chanted by a full chorus of voices ;
and the Catholics insulted, by the purity of their
doctrine, the Arian prelate who had usurped the
throne of the venerable Eustathius. The same zeal
which inspired their songs prompted the more scrupu-
lous members of the orthodox party to form separate
assemblies, which were governed by the presbyters,
till the death of their exiled bishop allowed the election
and consecration of a new episcopal pastor J^ The
revolutions of the court multiplied the number of
pretenders ; and the same city was often disputed,
under the reign of Constantius, by two, or three, or
even four bishops, who exercised their spiritual juris-
diction over their respective followers, and alternately
lost and regained the temporal possessions of the
church. The abuse of Christianity introduced into
the Roman government new causes of tyranny and
sedition ; the bands of civil society were torn asunder
by the fury of religious factions ; and the obscure
citizen, who might calmly have surveyed the elevation
and fall of successive emperors, imagined and experi-
enced that his own life and fortune were connected
"^ Godefroy has examined this subject with singular accuracy
(p. 147, &c.). There were three heterodox forms: "To the
Father by the Son, and in the Holy Ghost : " "To the Father
and the Son in the Holy Ghost : " and " To the Father in
the Son and the Holy Ghost."
''2 After the exile of Eustathius, under the reign of Constan-
tine, the rigid party of the orthodox formed a separation, which
afterwards degenerated into a schism, and lasted above fourscore
years. In many churches, the Arians and Homoousians, who
had renounced each other's communion, continued for some
time to join in prayer.
432 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
with the interests of a popular ecclesiastic. The ex-
ample of the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople,
may serve to represent the state of the empire, and
the temper of mankind, under the reign of the sons
of Constantine.
I. The Roman pontiff, as long as he maintained his
station and his principles, was guarded by the warm
attachment of a great people ; and could reject with
scorn the prayers, the menaces, and the oblations of
an heretical prince. When the eunuchs had secretly
pronounced the exile of Liberius, the well-grounded
apprehension of a tumult engaged them to use the
utmost precautions in the execution of the sentence.
The capital was invested on every side, and the prte-
fect was commanded to seize the person of the bishop,
either by stratagem or by open force. The order was
obeyed ; and Liberius, with the greatest difficulty, at
the hour of midnight, was swiftly conveyed beyond
the reach of the Roman people, before their conster-
nation was turned into rage. As soon as they were
informed of his banishment into Thrace, a general
assembly was convened, and the clergy of Rome bound
themselves, by a public and solemn oath, never to
desert their bishop, never to acknowledge the usurper
Felix ; who, by the influence of the eunuchs, had
been irregularly chosen and consecrated within the
walls of a profane palace. At the end of two years,
their pious obstinacy subsisted entire and unshaken ;
and, when Constantius visited Rome, he was assailed
by the importunate solicitations of a people, who had
preserved, as the last remnant of their ancient freedom,
the right of treating their sovereign with familiar in-
solence. The vs:-ives of many of the senators and most
honourable citizens, after pressing their husbands to
intercede in favour of Liberius, were advised to under-
take a commission, which, in their hands, would be
less dangerous and might prove more successful. The
emperor received with politeness these female deputies,
whose wealth and dignity were displayed in the mag-
nificence of their dress and ornaments : he admired
357-358 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 433
their inflexible resolution of following their beloved
pastor to the most distant regions of the earth, and
consented that the two bishops, Liberius and FelLx,
should govern in peace their respective congregations.
But the ideas of toleration were so repugnant to the
practice, and even to the sentiments, of those times
that, when the answer of Constantius was publicly
read in the Circus of Rome, so reasonable a project of
accommodation was rejected with contempt and ridicule.
The eager vehemence which animated the spectators
in the decisive moment of a horse-race was now directed
towards a different object, and the Circus resounded
with the shout of thousands, who repeatedly exclaimed,
" One God, One Christ, One Bishop." The zeal of
the Roman people in the cause of Liberius was not
confined to words alone ; and the dangerous and bloody
sedition which they excited soon after the departure of
Constantius determined that prince to accept the sub-
mission of the exiled prelate, and to restore him to
the undivided dominion of the capital. After some
ineffectual resistance, his rival was expelled from the
city by the permission of the emperor, and the power
of the opposite faction ; the adherents of Felix were
inhumanly murdered in the streets, in the public places,
in the baths, and even in the churches ; and the face
of Rome, upon the return of a Christian bishop, re-
newed the horrid image of the massacres of Marius
and the proscriptions of Sylla,
II. Notwithstanding the rapid increase of Christians
under the reign of the Flavian family, Rome, Alexandria,
and the other great cities of the empire, still contained
a strong and powerful faction of Infidels, who envied
the prosperity, and who ridiculed, even on their
theatres, the theological disputes, of the church.
Constantinople alone enjoyed the advantage of being
born and educated in the bosom of the faith. The
capital of the East had never been polluted by the
worship of idols ; and the whole body of the people
had deeply imbibed the opinions, the virtues, and the
passions, wliich distinguished the Christians of that
434 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
ae^e from the rest of mankind. After the death of
Alexander, the episcopal throne was disputed by Paul
and Macedonius. By their zeal and abilities they both
deserved the eminent station to which they aspired ;
and, if the moral character of Macedonius was less
exceptionable, his competitor had the advantage of
a prior election and a more orthodox doctrine. His
firm attachment to the Nicene creed, which has given
Paul a place in the calendar among saints and martyrs,
exposed him to the resentment of the Arians. In the
s]>ace of fourteen years he was five times driven from
the throne ; to which he was more frequently restored
by the violence of the people than by the permission
of the prince ; and the power of Macedonius could
be secured only by the death of his rival. Tlie un-
fortunate Paul was dragged in chains from the sandy
deserts of Mesopotamia to the most desolate places
of Mount Taurus,"^ confined in a dark and narrow
dungeon, left six days without food, and at length
strangled, by the order of Philip, one of the principal
ministers of the emperor Constantius."'* The first
blood which stained the new capital was spilt in this
ecclesiastical contest ; and many persons were slain
on both sides, in the furious and obstinate seditions
of the people. The commission of enforcing a sentence
of banishment against Paul had been entrusted to
Hermogenes, the master-general of the cavalry ; but
the execution of it was fatal to himself. The Catholics
73 Cucusus was the last stage of his life and sufferings. The
situation of that lonely town, on the confines of Cappadocia,
Cilicia, and the Lesser Armenia, has occasioned some geo-
graphical perplexity ; but we are directed to the true spot by
the course of the Roman road from Caesarea to Anazarbus.
'4 Athanasius (t. i. pp. 703, 813, 814) affirms, in the most
positive terms, that Paul was murdered ; and appeals, not only
to common fame, but even to the unsuspicious testimony of
Philagrius, one of the Arian persecutors. Yet he acknowledges
that the heretics attributed to disease the death of the bishop
of Constantinople. Athanasius is servilely copied by Socrates
(1. ii. c. 26) ; but Sozomen, who discovers a more liberal
temper, presumes (1. iv. c. 2) to insinuate a prudent doubt.
3o0 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 435
rose in the defence of their bishop ; the palace of
Hermogenes was consumed ; the first military officer
of the empire was dragged by the heels through the
streets of Constantinople^ and, after he expired, his
lifeless corpse was exposed to their wanton insults.
The fate of Hermogenes instructed Philip, the Prae-
torian praefect, to act with more precaution on a
similar occasion. In the most gentle and honourable
terms, he required the attendance of Paul in the baths
of Zeuxippus, which had a private communication with
the palace and the sea. A vessel, which lay ready at
the garden-stairs, immediately hoisted sail ; and, while
the people were still ignorant of the meditated sacri-
lege, their bishop was already embarked on his voyage
to Thessalonica. They soon beheld, with surprise and
indignation, the gates of the palace thrown open, and
the usurper Macedonius seated by the side of the
praefect on a lofty chariot, which was surrounded by
troops of guards with drawn swords. The military
procession advanced towards the cathedral ; the Arians
and the Catholics eagerly rushed to occupy that im-
portant post ; and three thousand one hundred and
fifty persons lost their lives in the confusion of the
tumult. Macedonius, who was supported by a regular
force, obtained a decisive victory ; but his reign was
disturbed by clamour and sedition ; and the causes
which appeared the least connected with the subject of
dispute were sufficient to nourish and to kindle the
flame of civil discord. As the chapel in which the
body of the great Constantine had been deposited was
in a ruinous condition, the bishops transported those
venerable remains into the church of St. Acacius.
This prudent and even pious measure was represented
as a wicked profanation by the whole party which
adhered to the Homoousian doctrine. Tlie factions
immediately flew to arms, the consecrated ground
was used as their field of battle ; and one of the
ecclesiastical historians has observed, as a real fact,
not as a figure of rhetoric, that the well before the
church overflowed with a stream of blood, which filled
436 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the porticoes and the adjacent courts. The writer
who should impute these tumults solely to a religious
principle would betray a very imperfect knowledge
of human nature ; yet it must be confessed that the
motive which misled the sincerity of zeal, and the
pretence which disguised the licentiousness of passion,
suppressed the remorse which, in another cause, would
have succeeded to the rage of the Christians of Con-
stantinople.
The cruel and arbitrary disposition of Constantius,
which did not always require the provocations of guilt
and resistance, was justly exasperated by the tumults
of his capital and the criminal behaviour of a faction,
which opposed the authority and religion of their
sovereign. The ordinary punishments of death, exile,
and confiscation were inflicted with partial rigour ;
and the Greeks still revere the holy memory of two
clerks, a reader and a sub-deacon, who were accused
of the murder of Hermogeues, and beheaded at the
gates of Constantinople. By an edict of Constantius
against the Catholics, which has not been judged
worthy of a place in the Theodosian code, those who
refused to communicate with the Arian bishops, and
particularly with Macedonius, were deprived of the
immunities of ecclesiastics and of the rights of
Christians ; they were compelled to relinquish the
possession of the churches ; and were strictly pro-
hibited from holding their assemblies within the walls
of the city. The execution of this unjust law, in the
provinces of Thrace and Asia Minor, was committed
to the zeal of Macedonius ; the civil and military
powers were directed to obey his commands ; and the
cruelties exercised by this Semi-Arian tyrant in the
support of the Homoiousion, exceeded the commission,
and disgraced the reign, of Constantius. The sacra-
ments of the church were administered to the reluctant
victims, who denied the vocation, and abhorred the
principles, of Macedonius. The rites of baptism were
conferred on women and children, who, for that
purpose, had been torn from the arms of their friends
346 OF THE ROMAN EiMPIRE 437
and parents ; the mouths of the communicants were
held open^ by a wooden eng-ine, while the consecrated
bread was forced down their throat ; the breasts of
tender virgins were either burnt with red-hot egg-
shells or inhumanly compressed between sharp and
heavy boards."^ llie Novatians of Constantinople
and the adjacent country, by their firm attachment
to the Homoousian standard^ deserved to be con-
founded with the Catholics themselves. Macedonius
was informed that a large district of Paphlagonia
was almost entirely inhabited by those sectaries. He
resolved either to convert or to extirpate them ; and,
as he distrusted, on this occasion, the efficacy of an
ecclesiastical mission, he commanded a body of four
thousand legionaries to march against the rebels, and
to reduce the territory of Mantinium under his spiritual
dominion. The Novatian peasants, animated by despair
and religious fury, boldly encountered the invaders of
their country ; and, though many of the Paphlagonians
were slain, the Roman legions were vanquished by an
irregular multitude, armed only with scythes and axes ;
and, except a few who escaped by an ignominious
flight, four thousand soldiers were left dead on the
field of battle. The successor of Constantius has
expressed, in a concise but lively manner, some of the
theological calamities which afflicted the empire, and
more especially the East, in the reign of a prince who
was the slave of his o^vn passions and of those of his
eunuchs. " Many were imprisoned, and persecuted,
and driven into exile. AV'hole troops of those who
were styled heretics were massacred, particularly at
Cyzicus, and at Samosata. In Paphlagonia, Bithynia,
Galatia, and in many other provinces, towns and
villages were laid waste and utterly destroyed."
''s The principal assistants of Macedonius, in the work of
persecution, were the two bishops of Nicomedia and Cyzicus,
who were esteemed for their virtues, and especially for their
charity. I cannot forbear reminding the reader that the
difference between the Homoousion and Homoiousicn is almost
invisible to the nicest theological eye.
438 THE DECLINE AND FALL
VV^hile the flames of the Ariaii coutroversy consumed
the vitals of the empire, the African provinces were
infested by their peculiar enemies the savage fanatics,
who, under the name of Cii'cumcellions , formed the
streuiTth and scandal of the Donatist party. The severe
execution of the laws of Constautine had excited a
spirit of discontent and resistance ; the strenuous
efforts of his son Constans to restore the unity of the
church exasperated the sentiments of mutual hatred
which had first occasioned the separation ; and the
methods of force and corruption employed by the two
imperial commissioners, Paul and Macarius, furnished
the schismatics with a specious contrast between the
maxims of the apostles and the conduct of their pre-
tended successors. The peasants who inhabited the
villages of Numidia and Mauritania were a ferocious
race, who had been imperfectly reduced under the
authority of the Roman laws ; who were imperfectly
converted to the Christian faith ; but who were
actuated by a blind and furious enthusiasm in the
cause of their Donatist teachers. They indignantly
supported the exile of their bishops, the demolition
of their churches, and the interruption of their secret
assemblies. The violence of the officers of justice,
who were usually sustained by a military guard, was
sometimes repelled with equal violence ; and the blood
of some popular ecclesiastics, which had been shed in
the quarrel, inflamed their rude followers with an eager
desire of revenging the death of these holy martyrs.
By their own cruelty and rashness, the ministers of
persecution sometimes provoked their fate ; and the
guilt of an accidental tumult precipitated the criminals
into despair and rebellion. Driven from their native
villages, the Donatist peasants assembled in formidable
gangs on the edge of the Ga;tulian desert ; and readily
exchanged the habits of labour for a life of idleness
and rapine, which was consecrated by the name of
religion and faintly condemned by the doctors of the
sect. The leaders of the Circumcellions assumed the
title of captains of the saints ; their principal weapon,
OF THE ROMAN EiMPIRE 439
as they were indifferently provided with swords and
spearsj was a huge and weighty club^ which they
termed an Israelite; and the well-known sound of
" Praise be to God/' which they used as their cry
of war, diffused consternation over the unarmed pro-
vinces of Africa. At first their depredations were
coloured by the plea of necessity ; but they soon
exceeded the measure of subsistence, indulged with-
out control their intemperance and avarice, burnt the
villages which they had pillaged, and reigned the
licentious tyrants of the open country. The occupa-
tions of husbandry, and the administration of justice,
were interrupted ; and, as the Circumcellions pre-
tended to restore the primitive equality of mankind
and to reform the abuses of civil society, they opened
a secure asylum for the slaves and debtors, who flocked
in crowds to their holy standard. When they were
not resisted, they usually contented themselves with
plunder, but the slightest opposition provoked them
to acts of violence and murder ; and some Catholic
priests, who had imprudently signalised their zeal,
were tortured by the fanatics with the most refined
and wanton barbarity. The spirit of the Circum-
cellions was not always exerted against their defence-
less enemies ; they engaged, and sometimes defeated,
the troops of the province ; and in the bloody
action of Bagai, they attacked in the open field, but
with unsuccessful valour, an advanced guard of the
Imperial cavalry. The Donatists who were taken in
arms received, and they soon deserved, the same
treatment which might have been shown to the wild
beasts of the desert. The captives died, without a
murmur, either by the sword, the axe, or the fire ;
and the measures of retaliation were multiplied in a
rapid proportion, which aggravated the horrors of
rebellion, and excluded the hope of mutual forgive-
ness. In the beginning of the present century, the
example of the Circumcellions has been renewed in
the persecution, the boldness, the crimes, and the
enthusiasm of the Camisards ; and, if the fanatics of
440 THE DECLINE AND FALL
Languedoc surpassed those of Numidia by their mili-
tary achievements, the Africans maintained their fierce
independence with more resolution and perseverance.
Such disorders are the natural effects of religious
tyranny ; but the rage of the Donatists was inflamed
bv a frenzy of a very extraordinary kind ; and which,
if it really prevailed among them in ^o extravagant a
degree, cannot surely be paralleled in any country or
in any age. Many of these fanatics were possessed
with the horror of life, and the desire of martyrdom ;
and they deemed it of little moment by what means, or
by what hands, they perished, if their conduct was
sanctified by the intention of devoting themselves to
the glory of the true faith and the hope of eternal
happiness. '^^ Sometimes they rudely disturbed the
festivals and profaned the temples of paganism, with
the design of exciting the most zealous of the idolaters
to revenge the insulted honour of their gods. They
sometimes forced their way into the courts of justice,
and compelled the affrighted judge to give orders for
their immediate execution. They frequently stopped
travellers on the public highways, and obliged them
to inflict the stroke of martyrdom, by the promise of a
reward, if they consented, and by the threat of instant
death, if they refused to grant so very singular a favour.
When they were disappointed of every other resource,
they announced the day on which, in the presence of
their friends and brethren, they should cast themselves
headlong from some lofty rock ; and many precipices
were shown, which had acquired fame by the number
of religious suicides. In the actions of these desperate
enthusiasts, who were admired by one party as the
martyrs of God, and abhorred by the other as the
victims of Satan, an impartial philosopher may discover
the influence and the last abuse of that inflexible spirit,
which was originally derived from the character and
principles of the Jewish nation.
78 The Donatist suicides alleged in their justification the
example of Razias, which is related in the 14th chapter of the
second book of the Maccabees.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 441
The simple narrative of the intestine divisions, which
distracted the peace and dishonoured the triumph,
of the church, will confirm the remark of a pagan
historian, and justify the complaint of a venerable
bishop. The experience of Ammianus had convinced
him that the enmity of the Christians towards each
other surpassed the fury of savage beasts against man ;
and Gregory Xazianzen most pathetically laments that
the kingdom of heaven was converted, by discord, into
the image of chaos, of a nocturnal tempest, and of hell
itself. The fierce and partial writers of the times,
ascribing all virtue to themselves, and imputing all
guilt to their adversaries, have painted the battle of
the angels and daemons. Our calmer reason will reject
such pure and perfect monsters of vice or sanctity, and
will impute an equal, or at least an indiscriminate,
measure of good and evil to the hostile sectaries, who
assumed and bestowed the appellations of orthodox
and heretics. They had been educated in the same
religion, and the same civil society. Their hopes and
fears in the present, or in a future, life were balanced
in the same proportion. On either side, the error
migh't be innocent, the faith sincere, the practice
meritorious or corrupt Their passions were excited
by similar objects ; and they might alternately abuse
the favour of the court, or of the people. The meta-
physical opinions of the Athanasians and the Arians
could not influence their moral character ; and they
were alike actuated by the intolerant spirit which has
been extracted from the pure and simple maxims of
the gospel.
A modern writer, who, with a just confidence, has
prefixed to his own history the honourable epithets of
political and philosophical, accuses the timid prudence
of Montesquieu for neglecting to enumerate, among
the causes of the decline of the empire, a law of
Constantine, by which the exercise of the pagan
worship was absolutely suppressed, and a considerable
part ol" his subjects was left destitute of priests, of
temples, and of any public religion. The zeal of the
442 THE DECLINE AND FALL
philosophic historian for the rig-hts of mankind has
induced him to acquiesce in the ambiguous testimony
of those ecclesiastics, who have too lightly ascribed to
their favourite hero the merit of a general persecution.
Instead of alleging this imaginary law, which would
have blazed in front of the Imperial codes, we may
safely appeal to the original epistle which Constantino
addressed to the followers of the ancient religion ; at
a time when he no longer disguised his conversion nor
dreaded the rivals of his throne. He invites and ex-
horts, in the most pressing terms, the subjects of the
Roman empire to imitate the example of their master ;
but he declares that those who still refuse to open
their eyes to the celestial light may freely enjoy their
temples and their fancied gods. A report that the
ceremonies of paganism were suppressed is formally
contradicted by the emperor himself, who wisely
assigns, as the principle of his moderation, the in-
vincible force of habit, of prejudice, and of super-
stition. Without violating the sanctity of his promise,
without alarming the fears of the pagans, the artful
monarch advanced, by slow and cautious steps, to
undermine the irregular and decayed fabric of poly-
theism. The partial acts of severity which he occa-
sionally exercised, though they were secretly prompted
by a Christian zeal, were coloured by the fairest
pretences of justice and the public good ; and, while
Constantine designed to ruin the foundations, he
seemed to reform the abuses, of the ancient religion.
After the example of the wisest of his predecessors,
he condemned, under the most rigorous penalties, the
occult and impious arts of divination ; which excited
the vain hopes, and sometimes the criminal attempts,
of those who were discontented with their present
condition. An ignominious silence was imposed on
the oracles, which had been publicly convicted of
fraud and falsehood ; the effeminate priests of the Nile
were abolished ; and Constantine discharged the
duties of a Roman censor, when he gave orders for
the demolition of several temples of Phoenicia, in
i
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 443
which every mode of prostitution was devoutly prac-
tised in the face of day^ and to the honour of Venus. ^'
The Imperial city of Constantinople was, in some
measure, raised at the expense, and was adorned with
the spoils, of the opulent temples of Greece and
Asia ; the sacred property was confiscated ; the
statues of ^ods and heroes were transported, with rude
familiarity, among- a people who considered them as
ohjects, not of adoration, but of curiosity : the gold
and silver were restored to circulation ; and the
magistrates, the bishops, and the eunuchs, improved
the fortunate occasion of gratifying at once their zeal,
their avarice, and their resentment. But these depre-
dations were confined to a small part of the Roman
world ; and the provinces had been long since accus-
tomed to endure the same sacrilegious rapine, from
the tyranny of princes and proconsuls, who could not
be suspected of any design to subvert the established
religion."^
TTie sons of Constantine trod in the footsteps of
tlieir father, with more zeal and with less discretion.
The pretences of rapine and oppression were insensibly
multiplied ; '^ every indulgence was shown to the
illegal behaviour of the Christians ; every doubt was
explained to the disadvantage of paganism ; and the
demolition of the temples was celebrated as one of the
^ These acts of authority may be compared with the sup-
pression of the Bacchanals, and the demoHtion of the temple of
Isis, by the magistrates of pagan Rome.
''8 Eusebuis (in Vit. Constant. 1. iii. c. 54) and Libanius (Orat.
pro Templis, pp. 9, 10, edit. Gothofred.) both mention the pious
sacrilege of Constantine, which they viewed in very different
lights. The latter expressly declares that " he made use of the
sacred money, but made no alteration in the legal worship ; the
temples indeed were impoverished, but the sacred rites were
performed there." »
''^ Ammianus (xxii. 4) speaks of some court eunuchs who were
spoiiis templorum pasti. Libanius says (Orat. pro Tempi,
p. 23), that the emperor often gave away a temple, like a dog,
or a horse, or a slave, or a gold cup : but the devout philosopher
takes care to observe that these sacrilegious favotirites very
seldom prospered.
444 THE DECLINE AND FALL
auspicious events of the reign of Constans and Con-
stantius. The name of Constautius is prefixed to a
concise law, which might have superseded the neces-
sity of any future prohibitions. " It is our pleasure
that in all places, and in all cities, the temples be
immediately shut, and carefully guarded, that none
may have the power of offending. It is likewise our
pleasure that all our subjects should abstain from
sacrifices. If any one should be guilty of such an act,
let him feel the sword of vengeance, and, after his
execution, let his property be confiscated to the public
use. We denounce the same penalties against the
governors of the provinces, if they neglect to punish
the criminals." But there is the strongest reason to
believe that this formidable edict was either composed
without being published, or was published without
being executed. The evidence of facts, and the
monuments which are still extant of brass and marble,
continue to prove the public exercise of the pagan
worship during the whole reign of the sons of Con-
stantine. In the east, as well as in the west, in cities,
as well as in the country, a great number of temples
were respected, or at least were spared ; and the de-
vout multitude still enjoyed the luxury of sacrifices,
of festivals, and of processions, by the permission, or
by the connivance, of the civil government. About
four years after the supposed date of his bloody edict,
Constantius visited the temples of Rome ; and the
decency of his behaviour is recommended by a pagan
orator as an example worthy of the imitation of suc-
ceeding princes. ^^That emperor," says Symmachus,
'^suffered the privileges of the vestal virgins to re-
main inviolate ; he bestowed the sacerdotal dignities
on the nobles of Rome, granted the customary allow-
ance to defray the expenses of the ^ public rites and
sacrifices : and, though he had embraced a different
religion, he never attempted to deprive the empire
of the sacred worship of antiquity." The senate still
presumed to consecrate, by solemn decrees, the divine
memory of their sovereigns ; and Constantine himself
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 445
waL- associated, after his death, to those gods whom he
had renounced and insulted during his life. The title,
the ensigns, the prerogatives of sovereign pontiff,
which had been instituted by Numa, and assumed by
Augustus, were accepted, without hesitation, by seven
Christian emperors ; who were invested with a more
absolute authority over the religion which they had
deserted than over that which they professed.
The divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of
paganism ;^'^ and the holy war against the infidels was
less vigorously prosecuted by princes and bishops who
were more immediately alarmed by the guilt and
80 As I have freely anticipated the use oi pagans and paganism,
I shall now trace the singular revolutions of those celebrated
words. I. 110717, in the Doric dialect, so familiar to the Italians,
signifies a fountain ; and the rural neighbourhood which
frequented the same fountain derived the common appella-
tion of panics and pagans (Festus sub voce, and Servius ad
Virgil. Georgic. ii. 382). 2. By an easy extension of the word,
pagan and rural became almost synonymous (Plin. Hist. Natur.
xxviii. 5) ; and the meaner rustics acquired that name, which
has been corrupted mio peasants in the modern languages of
Europe, 3. The amazing increase of the military order intro-
duced the necessity of a correlative term (Hume's Essays, vol. i.
P- 555) ; and all iht people who were not enlisted in the service
of the prince were branded with the contemptuous epithet
of pagans (Tacit. Hist. iii. 24, 43, 77. Juvenal. Satir. xvi.
TertuUian. de Pallio, c. 4). 4. The Christians were the soldiers
of Christ ; their adversaries, who refused his sacrament, or
military oath of baptism, might deserve the metaphorical name
of pagans : and this popular reproach was introduced as early
as the reign of Valentinian (a.d. 365) into Imperial laws (Cod.
Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 18) and theological writings, 5.
Christianity gradually filled the cities of the empire ; the old re-
ligion, in the time of Prudentius (advers, Symmachum, 1, i. ad
fin.) and Orosius (in Prasfat. Hist.), retired and languished in
obscure villages ; and the word pagans, with its new significa-
tion, reverted to its primitive origin. 6. Since the worship of
Jupiter and his family has expired, the vacant title of pagans
has been successively applied t(j all the idolaters and polytheists
of the old and new world. 7. The Latin Christians bestowed
it, without scruple, on their mortal enemies the Mahometans;
and the purest unitarians were branded with the unjust reproach
of idolatry and paganism.
446 THE DECLINE AND FALL
danger of domestic rebelliou. The extirpation of
idolatry ^^ might have been justified by the established
principles of intolerance : but the hostile sects, which
alternately reigned in the Imperial court, were mutu-
ally apprehensive of alienating, and perhaps exas-
perating, the minds of a powerful, though declining,
faction. Every motive of authority and fashion, of
interest and reason, now militated on the side of
Christianity ; but two or three generations elapsed
before their victorious inliueuce was universally felt.
The religion which had so long and so lately been
established in the Roman empire was still revered by
a numerous people, less attached indeed to speculative
opinion than to ancient custom. The honours of the
state and army were indifferently bestowed on all the
subjects of Constantine and Coustantius ; and a con-
siderable portion of knowledge and wealth and valour
was still engaged in the service of polytheism. The
superstition of the senator and of the peasant, of the
poet and the philosopher, was derived from very
ditferent causes, but they met with equal devotion in
the temples of the gods. Their zeal was insensibly
provoked by the insulting triumph of a proscribed
sect ; and their hopes were revived by the well-
grounded confidence that the presumptive heir of the
empire, a young and valiant hero, who had delivered
Gaul from the arms of the Barbarians, had secretly
embraced the religion of his ancestors.
81 In the pure language of Ionia and Athens, ErScuXov and
AarpiLa were ancient and familiar words. The former ex-
pressed a likeness, an apparition, a representation, an image,
created either by fancy or art. The latter denoted any sort of
service or slavery. The Jews of Egypt, who translated the
Hebrew scriptures, restrained the use of these words (Exodus
XX. 4, 5) to the religious worship of an image. The peculiar
idiom of the Hellenists, or Grecian Jews, has been adopted by
the sacred and ecclesiastical writers ; and the reproach of
idolatry (EiduiXoXarpeLa) has stigmatised that visible and abject
mode of superstition which some sects of Christianity should
noi hastily impute to the polytheists of Greece and Rome.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 44^
CHAPTER XXII
JULIAN IS DECLARED EMPEROR BY THE LEGIONS OF
GAUL HIS MARCH AND SUCCESS THE DEATH OF
CONSTANTIUS CIVIL ADMINISTRATION OF JULIAN
While the Romans languished under the ignominious
tyranny of eunuchs and bishops, the praises of Julian
were repeated with transport in every part of the
empire, except in the palace of Constantius. The
Barbarians of Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the
arms of the young Caesar ; his soldiers were the
companions of his victory ; the grateful provincials
enjoyed the blessings of his reign ; but the favourites
who had opposed his elevation were offended by his
virtues ; and they justly considered the friend of the
people as the enemy of the court. As long as the
fame of Julian was doubtful, the buffoons of the palace,
who were skilled in the language of satire, tried the
efficacy of those arts which they had so often prac-
tised with success. They easily discovered that his
simplicity was not exempt from affectation : the ridicu-
lous epithets of an hairy savage, of an ape invested
with the purple, were applied to the dress and person
of the philosophic warrior ; and his modest despatches
were stigmatised as the vain and elaborate fictions of
a loquacious Greek, a speculative soldier, who had
studied the art of war amidst the groves of the
academy. The voice of malicious folly was at length
silenced by the shouts of victory ; the conqueror of
the Franks and Alemanni could no longer be painted
as an object of contempt : and the monarch himself
was meanly ambitious of stealing from his lieutenant
the honourable reward of his labours. In the letters
crowned with laurel, which, according to ancient
448 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
custom, were addressed to the provinces, the name
of Julian was omitted. " Constantius had made his
dispositions in person ; he had signalised his valour
in the foremost ranks ; his military conduct had
secured the victory ; and the captive king of the
Barbarians was presented to him on the field of
battle," from which he was at that time distant about
forty days' journey.^ So extravagant a fable \v:vs
incapable, however, of deceiving the public credulity,
or even of satisfying the pride of the emperor him-
self. Secretly conscious that the applause and favour
of the Romans accompanied the rising fortunes of
Julian, his discontented mind was prepared to receive
the subtle poison of those artful sycophants who
coloured their mischievous designs with the fairest
appearances of truth and jcandour. Instead of de-
preciating the merits of Julian, they acknowledged,
and even exaggerated, his popular fame, superior
talents, and important services. But they darkly
insinuated that the virtues of the Caesar might in-
stantly be converted into the most dangerous crimes,
if tbe inconstant multitude should p/efer their incli-
nations to their duty ; or if the general of a victorious
army should be tempted from his allegiance by the
hopes of revenge and independent greatness. The
personal fears of Constantius were interpreted by his
council as a laudable anxiety for the public safety ;
whilst in private, and perhaps in his own breast, he
disguised, under the less odious appellation of fear,
the sentiments of hatred and envy, which he had
secretly conceived for the inimitable virtues of
Julian.
1 The orator Themistius (iv, pp. 56, 57) believed whatever was
contained in the Imperial letters which were addressed to the
senate of Constantinople. Aurelius Victor, who published his
Abridgment in the last year of Constantius, ascribes the German
victories to the wisdom of the emperor, and Xhc fortune of the
Caesar. Yet the historian, soon afterwards, was indebted to the
favour or esteem of Julian for the honour of a brass statue, and
the important offices of consular of the second Pannonia, and
praefect of the city.
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 449
The apparent tranquillity of Gaul and the imminent
danger of the eastern provinces offered a specious
pretence for the design which was artfully concerted
by the Imperial ministers. They resolved to disarm
the CaBsar ; to recall those faithful troops who guarded
his person and dignity ; and to employ in a distant
war against the Persian monarch the hardy veterans
who had vanquished^, on the banks of the Rhine, the
fiercest nations of Germany. \Vhile Julian used the
laborious hours of his winter quarters at Paris in the
administration of power, which^ in his hands, was the
exercise of virtue, he was surprised by the hasty
arrival of a tribune and a notary, with positive orders
from the emperor, which they were directed to execute,
and he was commanded not to oppose. Constantius
signified his pleasure, that four entire legions, the
Celtae, and Petulants, the Heruli, and the Batavians,
should be separated from the standard of Julian,
under which they had acquired their fame and disci-
pline ; that in each of the remaining bands three
hundred of the bravest youths should be selected ; and
that this numerous detachment, the strength of the
Gallic army, should instantly begin their march, and
exert their utmost diligence to arrive, before the
opening of the campaign, on the frontiers of Persia. ^
The Csesar foresaw, and lamented, the consequences of
this fatal mandate. Most of the auxiliaries, who en-
gaged their voluntary service, had stipulated that they
should never be obliged to pass the Alps. The public
faith of Rome and the personal honour of Julian had
been pledged for the observance of this condition.
Such an act of treachery and oppression would destroy
the confidence, and excite the resentment, of the in-
2 The minute interval, which may be interposed, between the
hyeme adulta and \h& primo vere of Ammianus, instead of allow-
ing a sufficient space for a march of three thousand miles, would
render the orders of Constantius as extravagant as they were
unjust. The troops of Gaul could not have reached Syria till
the end of autumn. The memory of Ammianus must have been
inaccurate, and his language incorrect.
VOL. II.
450 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
dependent warriors of Germany, who considered truth
as the noblest of their virtues, and freedom as the
most valuable of their possessions. The legionaries,
who enjoyed the title and privileges of Romans, were
enlisted for the general defence of the republic ; but
those mercenary troops heard with cold indifference
the antiquated names of the Republic and of Rome.
Attached, either from birth or long habit, to the
climate and manners of Gaul, they loved and ad-
mired Julian ; they despised, and perhaps hated, the
emperor ; they dreaded the laborious march, the
Persian arrows, and the burning deserts of Asia.
They claimed as their own the country which they
had saved ; and excused their want of spirit by
pleading the sacred and more immediate duty of
protecting their families and friends. The appre-
hensions of the Gauls were derived from the know-
ledge of the impending and inevitable danger. As
soon as the provinces were exhausted of their military
strength, the Germans would violate a treaty which
had been imposed on their fears ; and, notwithstand-
ing the abilities and valour of Julian, the general of a
nominal army, to whom the public calamities would be
im])uted, must find himself, after a vain resistance,
either a prisoner in the camp of the Barbarians or
a criminal in the palace of Constantius. If Julian
complied with the orders which he had received, he
subscribed his own destruction, and that of a people
who deserved his affection. But a positive refusal
was an act of rebellion and a declaration of war. The
inexorable jealousy of the emperor, the peremptory,
and perhaps insidious, nature of his commands, left
not any room for a fair apology or candid interpreta-
tion ; and the dependent station of the Caesar scarcely
allowed him to pause or to deliberate. Solitude
increased the perplexity of Julian ; he could no
longer apply to the faithful counsels of Sallust, who
had been removed from his office by the judicious
malice of the eunuchs : he could not even enforce his
representations by the concurrence of the ministers,
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 451
who would have been afraid or ashamed to approve
the ruin of Gauh The moment had been chosen,
when Lupicinus,^ the general of the cavalry, was
despatched into Britain, to repulse the inroads of the
Scots and Picts ; and Florentius was occupied at
Vienna by the assessment of the tribute. The latter,
a crafty and corrupt statesman, declining- to assume
a responsible part on this dangerous occasion, eluded
the pressing and repeated invitations of Julian, who
represented to him that in every important measure,
the presence of the praefect was indispensable in the
council of the prince. In the meanwhile the Caesar
was oppressed by the rude and importunate solicita-
tions of the Imperial messengers, who presumed to
suggest that, if he expected the return of his ministers,
he would charge himself with the guilt of the delay,
and reserve for them the merit of the execution. Un-
able to resist, unwilling to comply, Julian expressed,
in the most serious terms, his wish, and even his
intention, of resigning the purple, which he could not
preserve with honour, but which he could not abdicate
with safety.
After a painful conflict, Julian was compelled to
acknowledge that obedience was the virtue of the most
eminent subject, and that the sovereign alone was
entitled to judge of the public welfare. He issued
the necessary orders for carrying into execution the
commands of Constantius ; a part of the troops began
their march for the Alps ; and the detachments from
the several garrisons moved towards their respective
places of assembly. They advanced with difficulty
through the trembling and afl'righted crowds of pro-
vincials ; who attempted to excite their pity by silent
3 The valour of Lupicinus, and his military skill, are acknow-
ledged by the historian, who, in his affected language, accuses
the general of exalting the horns of his pride, bellowing in a
tragic tone, and exciting a doubt whether he was more cruel or
avaricious. The danger from the Scots and Picts was so serious
that Julian himself had some thoughts of passing over into the
island.
462 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
despair or loud lamentations ; while the wives of the
soldiers, holding their infants in their arms, accused
the desertion of their husbands, in the mixed language
of grief, of tenderness, and of indignation. Tliis scene
of general distress afflicted the humanity of the Caesar ;
he granted a sufficient number of post-waggons to
transport the wives and families of the soldiers,^
endeavoured to alleviate the hardships which he was
constrained to inflict, and increased, by the most
laudable arts, his own popularity and the discontent
of the exiled troops. The grief of an armed multitude
is soon converted into rage ; their licentious murmurs,
which every hour were communicated from tent to
tent with more boldness and effect, prepared their
mindjj for the most daring acts of sedition ; and by
the connivance of their tribunes, a seasonable libel
was secretly dispersed, which painted in lively colours
the disgrace of the Caesar, the oppression of the Gallic
army, and the feeble vices of the tyrant of Asia. The
servants of Constantius were astonished and alarmed
by the progress of this dangerous spirit. They pressed
the Caesar to hasten the departure of the troops : but
they imprudently rejected the honest and judicious
advice of Julian ; who proposed that they should not
march through Paris, and suggested the danger and
temptation of a last interview.
As soon as the approach of the troops was announced,
the Caesar went out to meet them, and ascended his
tribunal, which had been erected in a plain before the
gates of the city. After distinguishing the officers and
soldiers who by their rank or merit deserved a peculiar
attention, Julian addressed himself in a studied oration
to the surrounding multitude : he celebrated their
exploits with grateful applause : encouraged them to
accept, with alacrity, the honour of serving under
the eyes of a powerful and liberal monarch ; and
4 He granted them the permission of the ciirsus clavt^laHs,
or clabularis. These post-waggons are often mentioned in
the Code, and were supposed to carry fifteen hundred pounds
weight.
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 453
admonished them that the commands of Augustus
required an instant and cheerful obedience. The
soldiers^ who were apprehensive of offending their
general by an indecent clamour, or of belying their
sentiments by false and i-enal acclamations, maintained
an obstinate silence, and, after a short pause, were
dismissed to their quarters. The principal officers
were entertained by the Caesar, who professed, in the
warmest language of friendship, his desire and his
inability to reward, according to their deserts, the
brave companions of his victories. They retired from
the feast, full of grief and perplexity ; and lamented
the hardship of their fate, which tore them from their
beloved general and their native country. The only
expedient which could prevent their separation was
boldly agitated and approved ; the popular resentment
was insensibly moulded into a regular conspiracy ;
their just reasons of complaint were heightened by
passion, and their passions were inflamed by wine ;
as, on the eve of their departure, the troops were
indulged in licentious festivity. At the hour of mid-
night, the impetuous multitude, with swords and bowls
and torches in their hands, rushed into the suburbs ;
encompassed the palace ; ^ and, careless of future
dangers, pronounced the fatal and irrevocable words,
Julian Augustus ! The prince, whose anxious sus-
pense was interrupted by their disorderly acclamations,
secured the doors against their intrusion ; and, as long
as it was in his power, secluded his person and dignity
from the accidents of a nocturnal tumult. At the
dawn of day, the soldiers, whose zeal was irritated by
opposition, forcibly entered the palace, seized, with
5 Most probably the palace of the baths (Thermarum), of
which a solid and lofty hall still subsists in the rue de la Harpe.
The buildings covered a considerable space of the modern
quarter of the University ; and the gardens, under the Mero-
vingian kings, communicated with the abbey of St. Germain
des Prez. By the injuries of time and the Normans, this ancient
palace was reduced, in the twelfth century, to a maze of ruins ;
whose dark recesses were the scene of licentious love.
464 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
respectful violence, the object of their choice, guarded
Julian with drawn swords through the streets of Paris,
placed him on the tribunal, and with repeated shouts
saluted him as their emperor. Prudence as well as
loyalty inculcated the propriety of resisting their
treasonable designs and of preparing for his oppressed
virtue the excuse of violence. Addressing himself by
turns to the multitude and to individuals, he some-
times implored their mercy, and sometimes expressed
his indignation ; conjured them not to sully the fame
of their immortal victories ; and ventured to promise
that, if they would immediately return to their allegi-
ance, he would undertake to obtain from the emperor,
not only a free and gracious pardon, but even the
revocation of the orders which had excited their
resentment. But the soldiers, who were conscious
of their guilt, chose rather to depend on the gratitude
of Julian than on the clemency of the emperor. Their
zeal was insensibly turned into impatience, and their
impatience into rage. The inflexible Caesar sustained,
till the third hour of the day, their prayers, their
reproaches, and their menaces ; nor did he yield, till
he had been repeatedly assured that, if he wished to
live, he must consent to reign. He was exalted on
a shield in the presence, and amidst the unanimous
acclamations, of the troops ; a rich military collar,
which was offered by chance, supplied the want of a
diadem ; ^ the ceremony was concluded by the promise
of a moderate donative ; " and the new emperor, over-
whelmed with real or affected grief, retired into the
most secret recesses of his apartment
The grief of Julian could proceed only from his
6 Even in this tumultuous moment, Julian attended to the
forms of superstitious ceremony, and obstinately refused the
inauspicious use of a female necklace, or a horse-collar, which
the impatient soldiers would have employed in the room of a
diadem.
' An equal proportion of gold and silver, five pieces of the
former, one pound of the latter ; the whole amounting to about
five pounds ten shillings of our monev.
360 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 455
innocence ; but his innocence must appear extremely
doubtful in the eyes of those who have learned to
suspect the motives and the professions of princes.
His lively and active rnind was susceptible of the
various impressions of hope and fear, of gratitude and
revenge_, of duty and of amhition, of the love of fame
and of the fear of reproach. But it is impossible for
us to calculate the respective weight and operation
of these sentiments ; or to ascertain the principles of
action^ which might escape the observation, while they
guided or rather impelled the steps, of Julian himself.
The discontent of the troops was produced by the
malice of his enemies ; their tumult was the natural
effect of interest and of passion ; and, if Julian had
tried to conceal a deep design under the appearances
of chance, he must have employed the most con-
summate artilice without necessity, and probably
without success. He solemnly declares, in the pre-
sence of Jupiter, of the Sun, of Mars, of Minerva,
and of all the other deities, that, till the close of the
evening which preceded his elevation, he was utterly
ignorant of the designs of the soldiers ; and it may
seem ungenerous to distrust the honour of a hero and
the truth of a philosopher. Yet the superstitious
confidence that Constant! us was the enemy, and that
he himself was the favourite, of the gods, might
prompt him to desire, to solicit, and even to hasten
the auspicious moment of his reign, which was pre-
destined to restore the ancient religion of mankind.
When Julian had received the intelligence of the
conspiracy, he resigned himself to a short slumber ;
and afterwards related to his friends that he had seen
the Genius of the empire waiting with some impatience
at his door, pressing for admittance, and reproaching
his want of spirit and ambition. Astonished and per-
plexed, he addressed his prayers to the great Jupiter ;
who immediately signified, by a clear and manifest
omen, that he should submit to the will of heaven
and of the army. The conduct which disclaims the
ordinary maxims of reason excites our suspicion and
456 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
eludes our inquiry. Whenever the spirit of fanaticism,
at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated
itself into a noble mind, it insensibly corrodes the
vital principles of virtue and veracity.
To moderate the zeal of his party, to protect the
persons of his enemies, to defeat and to despise the
secret enterprises which were formed against his life
and difirnity, were the cares which employed the first
days of the reign of the new emperor. Although he
was firmly resolved to maintain the station which he
had assumed, he was still desirous of saving his
country from the calamities of civil war, of declining
a contest with the superior forces of Constantius, and
of preserving his own character from the reproach
of perfidy and ingratitude. Adorned with the ensigns
of military and Imperial pomp, Julian showed himself
in the field of Mars to the soldiers, who glowed witli
ardent enthusiasm in the cause of their pupil, their
leader, and their friend. He recapitulated their
victories, lamented their sufferings, applauded their
resolution, animated their hopes, and checked their
impetuosity ; nor did he dismiss the assembly, till he
had obtained a solemn promise from the troops that,
if the emperor of the East would subscribe an equit-
able treaty, they would renounce any views of conquest,
and satisfy themselves with the tranquil possession of
the Gallic provinces. On this foundation he com-
posed, in his own name, and in that of the army, a
specious and moderate epistle, which was delivered
to Pentadius, his master of the offices, and to his
chamberlain Eutherius ; two ambassadors whom he
aj/pointed to receive the answer, and observe the
dispositions, of Constantius. This epistle is inscribed
with the modest appellation of Caisar ; but Julian
solicits in a peremptory, though respectful, manner
the confirmation of the title of Augustus. He acknow-
ledges the irregularity of his own election, while he
justifies, in some measure, the resentment and violence
of the troops which had extorted his reluctant consent.
He allows the supremacy of his brother Constantius ;
360-361 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 457
and engages to send him an annual present of Spanish
horses, to recruit his army with a select number of
Barbarian youths, and to accept from his choice a
Praetorian praefect of approved discretion and fidelity.
But he reserves for himself the nomination of his
other civil and military officers, with the troops, the
revenue, and the sovereignty of the provinces beyond
the Alps. He admonishes the emperor to consult the
dictates of justice; to distrust the arts of those venal
flatterers who subsist only by the discord of princes ;
and to embrace the offer of a fair and honourable
treaty, equally advantageous to the republic and to
the house of Constantine. In this negotiation Julian
claimed no more than he already possessed. The
delegated authority which he had long exercised over
the provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain was still
obeyed under a name more independent and august.
The soldiers and the people rejoiced in a revolution
which was not stained even with the blood of the
guilty. Florentius was a fugitive ; Lupicinus a
prisoner. The persons who were disaffected to the
new government were disarmed and secured ; and
the vacant offices were distributed, according to the
recommendation of merit, by a prince who despised
the intrigues of the palace and the clamours of the
soldiers.
The negotiations of peace were accompanied and
supported by the most vigorous preparations for war.
The army, which Julian held in readiness for immediate
action, was recruited and augmented by the disorders
of the times. The cruel persecution of the faction of
Magnentius had filled Gaul with numerous bands of
outlaws and robbers. They cheerfully accepted the
offer of a general pardon from a prince whom they
could trust, submitted to the restraints of military
discipline, and retained only their implacable hatred to
the person and government of Constautius. As soon as
the season of the year permitted Julian to take the
field, he appeared at the head of his legions ; threw a
bridge over the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Cleves ;
VOL. II. p 2
458 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
and prepared to chastise the perfidy of the Attuarii^ a
tribe of Franks^ who presumed that they might ravage,
with impunity, the frontiers of a divided empire. The
difficulty, as well as glory, of this enterprise, consisted
in a laborious march ; and Julian had conquered, as
soon as he could penetrate into, a country which former
princes had considered as inaccessible. After he had
given peace to the Barbarians, the emperor carefully
visited the fortifications along the Rhine from Cleves
to Basil ; surveyed, with peculiar attention, the ter-
ritories which he had recovered from the hands of
the Alemanni, passed through Besancon,^ which had
severely suffered from their fury, and fixed his head-
quarters at Vienna for the ensuing winter. The
barrier of Gaul was improved and strengthened with
additional fortifications ; and Julian entertained some
hopes that the Germans, whom he had so often
vanquished, might, in his absence, be restrained by the
terror of his name. Vadomair^ was the only prince of
the Alemanni whom he esteemed or feared ; and, while
the subtle Barbarian affected to observe the faith of
treatise, the progress of his arms threatened the state
with an unseasonable and dangerous war. The policy
of Julian condescended to surprise the prince of the
Alemanni by his own arts ; and Vadomair who, in the
character of a friend, had incautiously accepted an
invitation from the Roman governors, was seized in the
midst of the entertainment, and sent away prisoner
into the heart of Spain. Before the Barbarians were
recovered from their amazement, the emperor appeared
in arms on the banks of the Rhine, and, once more
8 Julian (Epist. xxxviii. p. 414) gives a short description of
Vesontio, or Besan9on ; a rocky peninsula almost encircled by
the river Doux ; once a magnificent city, filled with temples,
&c. now reduced to a small town, emerging however from its
ruins.
9 Vadomair entered into the Roman service, and was pro-
moted from a Barbarian kingdom to the military rank of duke
of Phoenicia. He still retained the same artful character
(Ammian. xxi. 4): but, under the reign ofValens, he signalised
his valour in the Armenian war (xxix. 11.
361 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 459
crossing the river, renewed the deep impressions of
terror and respect which had been already made by
four preceding expeditions.
The ambassadors of Julian had been instructed to
execute^ with the utmost diligence, their important
commission. But^ in their passage through Italy and
Illyricum^ they were detained by the tedious and
affected delays of the provincial governors ; they were
conducted by slow journeys from Constantinople to
Caesarea in Cappadocia ; and, when at length they
were admitted to the presence of Constantius, they
found that he had already conceived, from the des-
patches of his own officers, the most unfavourable
opinion of the conduct of Julian and of the Gallic
army. The letters were heard with impatience ; the
trembling messengers were dismissed with indignation
and contempt ; and the looks, the gestures, the furious
language of the monarch expressed the disorder of his
soul. The domestic connection, which might have
reconciled the brother and the husband of Helena, was
recently dissolved by the death of that princess, whose
pregnancy had been several times fruitless, and was
at last fatal to herself. ^^ Tlie empress Eusebia had
preserved, to the last moment of her life, the warm
and even jealous affection which she had conceived for
Julian ; and her mild influence might have moderated
the resentment of a prince who, since her death, was
abandoned to his own passions and to the arts of his
eunuchs. But the terror of a foreign invasion obliged
10 Her remains were sent to Rome, and interred near those
of her sister Constantina, in the suburb of the Via Nomentana,
Ammian. xxi. i. Libanius has composed a very weak apology
to justify his hero from a very absurd charge ; of poisoning his
wife, and rev/arding her physician with his mother's -jewels,
(See the seventh of seventeen new orations, published at
Venice 1754, from a MS. in St. Mark's library, pp. 1 17-127.)
Elpidius, the Praetorian praefect of the East, to whose evidence
the accuser of Julian appeals, is arraigned by Libanius as
effeminate and ungrateful ; yet the religion of Elpidius is
praised by Jerom (tom. i. p. 243), and his humanity by
Ammianus (xxi. 61
460 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
him to suspend the punishment of a private enemv ;
he continued his marcli towards the confines of Persia^
and thou£^ht it sufficient to signify the conditions which
might entitle Julian and his guilty followers to the
clemency of their offended sovereign. He required
that the presumptuous Cfesar should expressly re-
nounce the appellation and rank of Augustus, which
he had accepted from the rebels ; that he should
descend to his former station of a limited and depend-
ent minister ; that he should vest the powers of the
state and army in the hands of those officers who were
appointed by the Imperial court ; and that he should
trust his safety to the assurances of pardon, which
were announced by Epictetus, a Gallic bishop, and
cue of the Arian favourites of Constantius. Several
months were ineffectually consumed in a treaty which
was negotiated at the distance of three thousand miles
between Paris and Antioch ; and, as soon as Julian
perceived that his moderate and respectful behaviour
served only to irritate the pride of an implacable
adversary, he boldly resolved to commit his life and
fortune to the chance of a civil war. He gave a public
and military audience to the quaestor Leonas : the
haughty epistle of Constantius was read to the atten-
tive multitude ; and Julian protested, with the most
flattering deference, that he was ready to resign the
title of Augustus, if he could obtain the consent of
those whom he acknowledged as the authors of his ele-
vation. The faint proposal was impetuously silenced ;
and the acclamations of ^^ Julian Augustus, continue
to reign, by the authority of the army, of the people,
of the republic, which you have saved," thundered at
once from every part of the field, and terrified the pale
ambassador of Constantius. A part of the letter was
afterwards read, in which the emperor arraigned the
ingratitude of Julian, whom he had invested with the
honours of the purple ; whom he had educated with
so much care and tenderness ; whom he had preserved
in his infancy, when he was left a helpless orphan ;
"an orphan!" interrupted Julian, who justified his
361 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 461
cause by indulging^ his passions ; " does the assassin of
my family reproach me that I was left an orphan ? He
urg-es me to revenge those injuries which I have long
studied to forget." The assembly was dismissed ; and
Leonas, who, with some difficulty,, had been protected
from the popular fury, was sent back to his master,
with an epistle, in which Julian expressed, in a strain
of the most vehement eloquence, the sentiments of
contempt, of hatred, and of resentment, which had
been suppressed and embittered by the dissimulation
of twenty years. After this message, which might be
considered as a signal of irreconcilable war, Julian,
who some weeks before had celebrated the Christian
festival of the Epiphany, made a public declaration
that he committed the care of his safety to the
IMMORTAL GODS ; and thus publicly renounced the re-
ligion, as well as the friendship, of Constantius.
The situation of Julian required a vigorous and
immediate resolution. He had discovered from inter-
cepted letters that his adversary, sacrificing the in-
terest of the state to that of the monarch, had again
excited the Barbarians to invade the provinces of the
West. The position of two magazines, one of them
collected on the banks of the lake of Constance,
the other formed at tlie foot of the Cottian Alps,
seemed to indicate the march of two armies; and the
size of those magazines, each of which consisted of
six hundred thousand quarters of ^vheat, or rather
flour, ^1 was a threatening evidence of the strength
and numbers of the enemy, who prepared to surround
him. But the Imperial legions were still in their
distant quarters of Asia ; the Danube was feebly
guarded ; and, if Julian could occupy by a sudden
incursion the important provinces of Illyricum, he
might expect that a people of soldiers w^ould resort
11 Three hundred myriads or three millions of medimni, a
corn-measure familiar to the Athenians, and which contained
six Roman modii. Julian explains, like a soldier and a states-
man, the danger of his situation, and the necessity and advan-
tages of an offensive war.
462 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
to his standard, and that the rich mines of gold and
silver would contribute to the expenses of the civil
war. He proposed this bold enterprise to the assembly
of the soldiers ; inspired them with a just confidence
in their general and in themselves ; and exhorted
them to maintain their reputation, of being terrible
to the enemy, moderate to their fellow-citizens, and
obedient to their officers. His spirited discourse was
received with the loudest acclamations, and the same
troops which had talten up arms against Constantius,
when he summoned them to leave Gaul, now declared
with alacrity, that they would follow Julian to the
farthest extremities of Europe or Asia. The oath of
fidelity was administered ; and the soldiers, clashing
their shields, and pointing their drawn swords to their
throats, devoted themselves, with horrid imprecations,
to the service of a leader whom they celebrated as the
deliverer of Gaul and the conqueror of the Germans.
This solemn engagement, which seemed to be dictated
by affection rather than by duty, was singly opposed
by Nebridius, who had been admitted to the office of
PraBtorian praefect. That faithful minister, alone and
unassisted, asserted the rights of Constantius in the
midst of an armed and angry multitude, to whose
fury he had almost fallen an honourable, but useless,
sacrifice. After losing one of his hands by the stroke
of a sword, he embraced the knees of the prince
whom he had offended. Julian covered the praefect
with his Imperial mantle, and, protecting him from
the zeal of his followers, dismissed him to his own
house, with less lespect than was perhaps due to the
virtue of an enemy. ^^ 'i^q high office of Nebridius
was bestowed on Sallust ; and the provinces of Gaul,
which were now delivered from the intolerable op-
pression of taxes, enjoyed the mild and equitable
administration of the friend of Julian, who was per-
12 He sternly refused his hand to the suppliant praefect, whom
he sent into Tuscany. Libanius, with savage fury, insults
Nebridius, applauds the soldiers, and almost censures the
humanity of Julian.
361 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 463
mitted to practise those virtues which he had instilled
into the mind of his pupil.
The hopes of Julian depended much less on the
number of his troops than on the celerity of his
motions. In the execution of a daring' enterprise, he
availed himself of every precaution, as far as prudence
could suggest ; and, where prudence could no longer
accompany his steps, he trusted the event to valour
aad to fortune. In the neighbourhood of Basil he
assembled and divided his army. One body, which
consisted of ten thousand men, was directed, under
the command of Nevitta, general of the cavalry, to
advance through the midland parts of Rha^tia and
Noricum. A similar division of troops, under the
orders of Jovius and Joviuus, prepared to follow the
oblique course of the highways, through the Alps
and the northern confines of Italy. The instructions
to the generals were conceived with energy and pre-
cision : to hasten their march in close and compact
columns, which, according to the disposition of the
ground, might readily be changed into any order of
battle ; to secure themselves against the surprises of
the night by strong posts and vigilant guards ; to pre-
vent resistance by their unexpected arrival ; to elude
examination by their sudden departure ; to spread
the opinion of their strength and the terror of his
uamie ; and to join their sovereign under the walls
of Sirmium. For himself, Julian had reserved a more
difficult and extraordinary part. He selected three
thousand brave and active volunteers, resolved, like
their leader, to cast behind them every hope of a
retreat : at the head of this faithful band, he fear-
lessly plunged into the recesses of the Marcian or
black forest, which conceals the sources of the
Danube ; ^^ and, for many days, the fate of Julian
was unknown to the world. The secrecy of his march,
his diligence and vigour, surmounted every obstacle ;
13 This wood was a part of the great Hercynian forest, which,
in the time of Csesar, stretched away from the country of the
Rauraci (Basil) into the boundless regions of the North.
iO-4 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.i>.
he forced his way over mountains and morasses, occu-
pied the bride^es or swam the rivers, pursued iiis direct
course/* without reflecting whether he traversed the
territory of the Romans or of the Barbarians, and
at length emerged, between Ratisbon and Vienna,
at the place where he designed to embark his troops
on the Danube. By a well-concerted stratagem, he
seized a fleei: of light brigantines,^^ as it lay at anchor ;
secured a supply of coarse provisions sufficient to
satisfy the indelicate, but voracious, appetite of a
Gallic army ; and boldly committed himself to the
stream of the Danube. The labours of his mariners,
who ])lied their oars with incessant diligence, and the
steady continuance of a favourable wind, carried his
fleet above seven hundred miles in eleven days ; and
he had already disembarked his troaps at Bononia,
only nineteen miles from Sirmium, before his enemies
could receive any certain intelligence that he had left
the banks of the Rhine. In the course of this long
and ra])id navigation, the mind of Julian was fixed
on the object of his enterprise ; and, though he ac-
cepted the de])utation of some cities, which hastened
to claim the merit of an early submission, he passed
before the hostile stations, which were placed along
the river, without indulging the temptation of signal-
ising an useless and ill-timed valour. The banks of
the Danube were crowded on either side with sj>ecta-
tors, who gazed on the military pomp, anticipated the
importance of the event, and diffused through the
!•* Orat. iii. p. 68. Even the saint admires the speed and
secrecy of this march. A modern divine might apply to the
progress of Julian the hues which were originally designed for
another apostate : —
So eagerly the fiend,
O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rouL;h, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
16 In that interval the A\^titia places two or three fleets, the
Lauriacensis (at Lauriacum, or Lorch), the Arlapensis, the
Maginensis ; and mentions five legions, or cohorts, of Liburnarii,
who should be a sort of marines.
361 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 465
adjacent country the fame of a young hero, who ad-
vanced with more than mortal speed at the head of
the innumerable forces of the ^\^est. Lucilian, who,
with the rank of general of the cavalry, commanded
the military powers of lllyricum, was alarmed and
perplexed by the doubtful reports which he could
neither reject nor believe. He had taken some slow
and irresolute measures for the purpose of collecting
his troops ; when he was surprised by Dagalaiphus,
an active officer, whom Julian, as soon as lie landed
at Bononia, had pushed forwards with some light
infantry. The captive general, uncertain of his life
or death, was hastily thrown upon a horse, and con-
ducted to the presence of Julian ; who kindly raised
him from the ground, and dispelled the terror and
amazement which seemed to stupefy his faculties. But
Lucilian had no sooner recovered his spirits than he
betrayed his want of discretion, by presuming to ad-
monish his conqueror that he had rashly ventured,
with a handful of men. to expose his person in the
midst of his enemies. " Reserve for your master Con-
stantius these timid remonstrances," replied Julian,
with a smile of contempt ; " when I gave you my
purple to kiss, I received you not as a counsellor, but
as a suppliant." Conscious that success alone could
justify his attempt, and that boldness only could com-
mand success, he instantly advanced, at the head of
three thousand soldiers, to attack the strongest and
most populous city of the Illyrian provinces. As he
entered the long suburb of Sirmium, he was received
by the joyful acclamations of tlie army and peo])le ;
who, crowned with flowers, and holding lighted tapers
in their hands, conducted their acknowledged sovereign
to his Imperial residence. Two days were devoted to
the public joy, which was celebrated by the games of
the Circus ; but, early on the morning of the third
day, Julian marched to occupy the narrow pass of
Succi, in the defiles of Mount Haemus ; which, almost
in the mid-way between Sirmium and Constantinople,
separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia, by an
466 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
abrupt desicent towards the former and a simple de-
clivity on the side of the latter. ^^ The defence of this
important post was entrusted to the brave Nevitta ;
who, as well as the generals of the Italian division,
successfully executed the plan of the march and
junction which their master had so ably conceived.^^
The homag-e which Julian obtained, from the fears
or the inclination of the people, extended far beyond
the immediate effect of his arms. The praefectures of
Italy and Illyricum were administered by Taurus and
Florentius, who united that important office with the
vain honours of the consulship ; and, as those magis-
trates had retired with precipitation to the court of
Asia, Julian, who could not always restrain the levity
of his temjier, stigmatised their flight by adding, in
all the Acts of the Year, the epithet of fugitive to the
names of the two consuls. The provinces which had
been deserted by their first magistrates acknowledged
the authority of an emperor, who, conciliating the
qualities of a soldier with those of a philosopher, was
equally admired in the camps of the Danube and in
the cities of Greece.* From his palace, or, more
properly, from his head-quarters of Sirmium and
Naissus, he distributed to the principal cities of the
empire a laboured apology for his own conduct ;
published the secret despatches of Constantius ; and
solicited the judgment of mankind between two com-
petitors, the one of whom had expelled, and the
other had invited, the Barbarians. ^^ Julian, whose
16 The description of Ammianus, which might be supported
by collateral evidence, ascertains the precise situation of the
Angustice Succorum, or passes of Sued. M. d'Anville, from
the trifling resemblance of names, has placed them between
Sardica and Naissus. For my own justification, I am obliged
to mention the o?ily error which I have discovered in the maps
or writings of that admirable geographer.
17 Whatever circumstances we may borrow elsewhere, Am-
mianus (xxi. 8, 9, lo) still supplies the series of the narrative.
18 Julian positively asserts that he intercepted the letters of
Constantius to the Parbarians : and Libanius as positively
affirms that he read them on his march to the troops and the
361 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE 467
miud was deeply wounded by the reproach of in-
gratitude, aspired to maintain, by argument as well as
by arms, the superior merits of his cause ; and to
excel, not only in the arts of war, but in those of
composition. His epistle to the senate and people of
Athens seems to have been dictated by an elegant
enthusiasm ; which prompted him to submit his
actions and his motives to the degenerate Athenians of
his own times, with the same humble deference as if
he had been pleading, in the days of Aristides, before
the tribunal of the Areopagus. His application to the
senate of Rome, which was still permitted to bestow
the titles of Imperial power, was agreeable to the
forms of the expiring republic. An assembly was
summoned by Tertullus, prasfect of the city ; the
epistle of Julian was read ; and, as he appeared to be
master of Italy, his claims were admitted without a
dissenting voice. His oblique censure of the inno-
vations of Constantine, and his passionate invective
against the vices of Constantius, were heard with
less satisfaction ; and the senate, as if Julian had been
present, unanimously exclaimed, '' Respect, we be-
seech you, the author of your own fortune." An
artful expression, which, according to the chance of
war, might be differently explained ; as a manly
reproof of the ingratitude of the usurper, or as a
flattering confession that a single act of such benefit
to the state ought to atone for all the failings of
Constantius.
Tlie intelligence of the march and rapid progress of
Julian was speedily transmitted to his rival, who, by
the retreat of Sapor, had obtained some respite from
the Persian war. Disguising the anguish of his soul
under the semblance of contempt, Constantius pro-
fessed his intention of returning into Europe, and of
cities. Yet Ammianus (xxi. 4) expresses himself with cool and
candid hesitation, si famcB solius adraittenda est fides. He
specifies, however, an intercepted letter from Vadomair to Con-
stantius, which supposes an intimate correspondence between
them.
468 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
giving chase to Julian ; for he never spoke of this
military expedition in any other li^ht than that of a
hunting party. In the camp of Hierapolis, in Syria,
he communicated this design to his army, slightly
mentioned the guilt and rashness of the Csesar, and
ventured to assure them that, if the mutineers of
Gaul presumed to meet them in the field, they would
be unable to sustain the fire of their eyes and the
irresistible weight of their shout of onset. Tlie speech
of the emperor was received with military applause,
and Theodotus, the president of the council of Hiera-
polis, requested, with tears of adulation, that his city
might be adorned with the head of the vanquished
rebel. A chosen detachment was despatched away in
post-waggons, to secure, if it were yet possible, the
pass of Succi ; the recruits, the horses, the arms, and
the magazines which had been prepared against Sapor,
were appropriated to the service of the civil war ; and
the domestic victories of Constautius inspired his
partisans with the most sanguine assurances of suc-
cess. The notary Gaudentius had occupied in his
name the provinces of Africa ; the subsistence of
Rome was intercepted ; and the distress of Julian was
increased by an unexpected event which might Lave
been productive of fatal consequences. Julian had
received the submission of two legions and a cohort
of archers, who were stationed at Sirmium ; but he
suspected, with reason, the fidelity of those troops,
which liad been distinguished by the emperor ; and
it was thought expedient, under the pretence of the
ex])Osed state of the Gallic frontier, to dismiss them
from the most important scene of action. They
advanced, with reluctance, as far as the confines of
Italy ; but, as tliey dreaded the length of the way
and the savage fierceness of the Germans, they re-
solved, by the instigation of one of their tribunes, to
halt at Aquileia, and to erect the banners of Con-
stantius on the walls of that impregnable city. The
vigilance of Julian perceived at once the extent of the
mischief and the necessity of applying an immediate
361 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 469
remedy. By his order, Jovinus led back a part of the
army into Italy ; and the siege of Aquileia was formed
with diligence and prosecuted with vigour. But the
legionaries, who seemed to have rejected the yoke of
discipline, conducted the defence of the place with
skill and perseverance ; invited the rest of Italy to
imitate the example of their courage and loyalty ; and
threatened the retreat of Julian, if he should be forced
to vield to the superior numbers of the arms of the
East.
But the humanity of Julian was preserved from the
cruel alternative, which he pathetically laments, of
destroying or of being himself destroyed : and the
seasonable death of Constantius delivered the Roman
empire from the calamities of civil war. The approach
of winter could not detain the monarch at Antioch ;
and his favourites durst not oppose his impatient
desire of revenge. A slight fever, which was perhaps
occasioned by the agitation of his spirits, was increased
by the fatigues of the journey ; and Constantius was
obliged to halt at the little town of Mopsucrene,
twelve miles beyond Tarsus, where he expired, after
a short illness, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and
the twenty-fourth of his reign. His genuine character,
which was composed of pride and weakness, of super-
stition and cruelty, has been fully displayed in the
preceding narrative of civil and ecclesiastical events.
The long abuse of power rendered him a considerable
object in the eyes of his contemporaries ; but, as
personal merit can alone deserve the notice of pos-
terity, the last of the sons of Constantine may be
dismissed from the world with the remark, that he
inherited the defects, without the abilities, of his
father. Before Constantius expired, he is said to
have named Julian for his successor ; nor does it
seem improbable that his anxious concern for the
fate of a young and tender wife, whom he left with
child, may have prevailed, in his last moments, over
the harsher passions of hatred and revenge. Eusebius,
and his guilty associates, made a faint attempt to
470 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
prolong- the reign of the eunuchs by the election of
another emperor : but their intrigues were rejected
with disdain by an army which now abhorred the
thought of civil discord ; and two officers of rank
were instantly despatched, to assure Julian that every
sword in the empire would be drawn for his service.
The military designs of that prince, who had formed
three different attacks against Thrace, were prevented
by this fortunate event. Without shedding the blood
of his fellow-citizens, he escaped the dangers of a
doubtful conflict and acquired the advantages of a
complete victory. Impatient to visit the place of his
birth and the new capital of the empire, he advanced
from Naissus through the mountains of Haemus and
the cities of Thrace. Wlien he reached Heraclea,
at the distance of sixty miles, all Constantinople was
poured forth to receive him ; and he made his
triumphal entry, amidst the dutiful acclamations of
the soldiers, the people, and the senate. An in-
numerable multitude pressed around him with eager
respect ; and were perhaps disappointed when they
beheld the small stature and simple garb of a hero
whose unexperienced youth had vanquished the Bar-
barians of Germany, and who had now traversed, in
a successful career, the whole continent of Europe,
from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the
Bosphorus. A few days afterwards, when the remains
of the deceased emperor were landed in the harbour,
the subjects of Julian applauded the real or affected
humanity of their sovereign. On foot, without his
diadem, and clothed in a mourning liabit, he accom-
panied the funeral as far as the church of the Holy
Apostles, where the body was deposited : and, if these
marks of respect may be interpreted as a selfish tribute
to the birth and dignity of his Imperial kinsman, the
tears of Julian professed to the world that he had
forgot the injuries, and remembered only the obliga-
tions, which he had received from Constantius. As
soon as the legions of Aquileia were assured of the
death of the emperor, they opened the gates of the
361 OF THE ROMAN ExMPIRE 471
city, and, by the sacrifice of their guilty leaders,
obtained an easy pardon from the prudence or lenity
of Julian ; who, in the thirty-second year of his age,
acquired the undisputed possession of the Roman
empire.^^
Philosophy had instructed Julian to compare the
advantages of action and retirement ; but the elevation
of his birth and the accidents of his life never allowed
him the freedom of choice. He might perhaps sincerely
have preferred the groves of the academy and the
society of Athens ; but he was constrained, at first by
the will, and afterwards by the injustice, of Coustantius,
to expose his person and fame to the dangers of Im-
perial greatness ; and to make himself accountable to
the world, and to posterity, for the happiness of
millions. 2*5 Julian recollected with terror the observa-
tion of his master Plato, that the government of our
flocks and herds is always committed to beings of a
superior species ; and that the conduct of nations re-
quires and deserves the celestial powers of the Gods or
of the Genii. From this principle he justly concluded
that the man who presumes to reign should aspire to
the perfection of the divine nature ; that he should
purify his soul from her mortal and terrestrial part ;
that he should extinguish his appetites, enlighten his
understanding, regulate his passions, and subdue the
wild beast which, according to the lively metaphor of
Aristotle, seldom fails to ascend the throne of a despot.
The throne of Julian, which the death of Constantius
fixed on an independent basis, was the seat of reason, of
virtue, and perhaps of vanity. He despised the honours,
renounced the pleasures, and discharged with incessant
19 The day and year of the birth of Julian are not perfectly
ascertained. The day is probably the sixth of November, and
the year must be eithtr 331 or 332. 1 have preferred the earlier
date.
20 Julian himself has expressed these philosophical ideas with
much eloquence, and some affectation, in a very elaborate
epistle to Themistius. The Abb^ de la BMterie, who has given
an elegant translation, is inclined to believe that it was the
celebrated Themistius, whose orations are still extant.
472 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
diligence the duties, of his exalted station ; and there
were few among his subjects who would have consented
to relieve him from the weight of the diadem, had they
been obliged to submit their time and their actions to
the rigorous laws which their philosophic emperor im-
posed on himself. One of his most intimate friends,
who had often shared the frugalsimplicity of his table,
has remarked that his light and sparing diet (which
was usually of the vegetable kind) left his mind and
body always free and active for the various and impor-
tant business of an author, a pontiff, a magistrate, a
general, and a prince. In one and the same day, he
gave audience to several ambassadors, and wrote, or
dictated, a great number of letters to his generals, his
civil magistrates, his private friends, and the different
cities of his dominions. He listened to the memorials
which had been received, considered the subject of the
petitions, and signified his intentions more rapidly than
they could be taken in shorthand by the diligence of
his secretaries. He possessed such flexibility of thought,
and such firmness of attention, that he could employ
his hand to write, his ear to listen, and his voice to
dictate ; and pursue at once three several trains of
ideas without hesitation and without error. \Vliile his
ministers reposed, the prince flew with agility from one
labour to another, and, after a hasty dinner, retired
into his library, till the public business, which he had
appointed for the evening, summoned him to interrupt
the prosecution of his studies. The supper of the
emperor was still less substantial than the former
meal; his sleep was never clouded by the fumes of
indigestion ; and, except in the short interval of a
marriage, which was the effect of policy rather than love,
the chaste Julian never shared his bed with a female
companion. He was soon awakened by the entrance
of fresh secretaries, who had slept the preceding day ;
and his servants were obliged to wait alternately, while
their indefatigable master allowed himself scarcely any
other refreshment than the change of occupations.
The predecessors of Julian, his uncle, his brother, and
361-863 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 473
his cousin, indulged, their puerile taste for the games
of the circus, under the specious pretence of complying
with the inclinations of the people ; and they frequently
remained the greatest part of the day, as idle spectators,
and as a part of the splendid spectacle, till the ordinary
round of twenty-four races -^ was completely finished.
On solemn festivals, Julian, who felt and professed an
unfashionable dislike to these frivolous amusements,
condescended to appear in the circus ; and, after be-
stowing a careless glance on five or six of the races, he
hastily withdrew, with the impatience of a philosopher,
who considered every moment as lost that was not
devoted to the advantage of the public or the improve-
ment of his own mind.^^ By this avarice of time, he
seemed to protract the short duration of his reign ;
and, if the dates were less securely ascertained, we
should refuse to believe that only sixteen months
elapsed between the death of Constantius and the
departure of his successor for the Persian war. The
actions of Julian can only be preserved by the care
of the historian ; but the portion of his voluminous
writings which is still extant remains as a monument
of the application, as well as of the genius, of the
emperor. The Misopogon, the Caesars, several of his
orations, and his elaborate work against the Christian
religion, were composed in the long nights of the two
winters, the former of which he passed at Constanti-
nople, and the latter at Antioch.
21 A twenty-fifth race, or missus, was added, to complete the
number of one hundred chariots, four of which, the four colours,
started each heat.
Centum quadrijugos agitabo ad numina currus.
It appears that they ran five or seven times round the Meia ;
and (from the measure of the Circus Maximus at Rome, the
Hippodrome at Constantinople, &c.) it might be about a four-
mile course.
22 Julian, in Misopogon. p. 340. Julius Caesar had offended
the Roman people by reading his despatches during the actual
race. Augustus indulged their taste, or his own, by his con-
stant attention to the important business of the circus, for which
he professed the warmest inclination.
474 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
The reformation of the Imperial court was one of the
first and most necessary acts of the government of
Julian. Soon after his entrance into the palace of
Constantinople, he had occasion for the service of a
barber. An officer, magnificently dressed, immediately
presented himself. " It is a barber,'' exclaimed the
prince, with affected surprise, ''^that 1 want, and not a
receiver-general of the finances." He questioned the
man concerning the profits of his employment ; and was
informed that, besides a large salary and some valuable
perquisites, he enjoyed a daily allowance for twenty
servants and as many horses. A thousand barbers, a
thousand cup-bearers, a thousand cooks, were dis-
tributed in the several offices of luxury ; and the
number of eunuchs could be compared only with the
insects of a summer's day. The monarch who resigned
to his subjects the superiority of merit and virtue was
distinguished by the oppressive magnificence of his
dress, his table, his buildings, and his train. The
stately palaces erected by Constantine and his sons
were decorated with many coloured marbles and orna-
ments of massy gold. The most exquisite dainties were
procured, to gratify their pride rather than their taste ;
birds of the most distant climates, fish from the most
remote seas, fruits out of their natural season, winter
roses, and summer snows. The domestic crowd of the
palace surpassed the expense of the legions ; yet the
smallest part of this costly multitude was subservient
to the use, or even to the splendour, of the throne.
The monarch was disgraced, and the people was injured,
by the creation and sale of an infinite number of obscure,
and even titular employments ; and the most worth-
less of mankind might purchase the privilege of being
maintained, without the necessity of labour, from the
public revenue. The waste of an enormous household,
the increase of fees and perquisites, which were soon
claimed as a lawful debt, and the bribes which they
extorted from those who feared their enmity or solicited
their favour, suddenly enriched these haughty menials.
They abused their fortune, without considering their
361-363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 476
past, or their future, condition ; and their rapine and
venality could be equalled only by the extravagance of
their dissipations. Their silken robes were embroidered
with gold, their tables were served with delicacy and
profusion ; the houses which they built for their own
use would have covered the farm of an ancient consul ;
and the most honourable citizens were obliged to dis-
mount from their horses, and respectfully to salute an
eunuch whom they met on the public highway. The
luxury of the palace excited the contempt and indigna-
tion of Julian, who usually slept on the ground, who
yielded with reluctance to the indispensable calls of
nature, and who placed his vanity, not in emulating,
but in despising, the pomp of royalty. By the total
extirpation of a mischief which was magnified even
beyond its real extent, he was impatient to relieve the
distress, and to appease the murmurs, of the people ;
who support with less uneasiness the weight of taxes,
if they are convinced that the fruits of their industry
are appropriated to the service of the state. But in
the execution of this salutary work Julian is accused
of proceeding with too much haste and inconsiderate
severity. By a single edict, he reduced the palace of
Constantinople to an immense desert, and dismissed
with ignominy the whole train of slaves and de-
pendants,-^ without providing any just, or at least
benevolent, exceptions, for the age, the services, or
the poverty, of the faithful domestics of the Imperial
family. Such indeed was the temper of Julian, who
seldom recollected the fundamental maxim of Aristotle
that true virtue is placed at an equal distance between
the opposite vices. The splendid and effeminate dress
of the Asiatics, the curls and paint, the collars and
bracelets, which had appeared so ridiculous in the
person of Constantine, were consistently rejected by
his philosophic successor. But with the fopperies,
23 Yet Julian himself was accused of bestowing whole towns
on the eunuchs. Libanius contents himself with a cold but
positive denial of the fact, which seems indeed to belong more
properly to Constantius. This charge however may allude to
some unknown circumstance.
476 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
Julian affected to renounce the decencies, of dress;
and seemed to value himself for his neg^lect of the
laws of cleanliness. In a satirical performance, which
was designed for the puhlic eye, the emperor descants
with pleasure, and even with pride, on the length of
his nails, and the inky blackness of his hands ; protests
that, although the greatest part of his body was covered
with hair, the use of the razor was confined to his head
alone ; and celebrates, with visible complacency, the
shaggy and populous beard, which he fondly cherished
after the example of the philosophers of Greece. Had
Julian consulted the simple dictates of reason, the first
magistrate of the Romans would have scorned the
affectation of Diogenes as well as that of Darius.
But the work of public reformation would have
remained imperfect, if Julian had only corrected the
abuses, without punishing the crimes, of his prede-
cessor's reign. " ^Ve are now delivered," says he,
in a familiar letter to one of his intimate friends,
" we are now surprisingly delivered from the voracious
jaws of the Hydra. 1 do not mean to apply that
epithet to my brother Constantius. He is no more ;
may the earth lie light on his head I But his artful
and cruel favourites studied to deceive and exasperate
a prince whose natural mildness cannot be praised
without some efforts of adulation. It is not, however,
my intention that even those men should be oppressed :
they are accused, and they shall enjoy the benefit of
a fair and impartial trial." To conduct this inquiry,
Julian named six judges of the highest rank in the
state and army ; and, as he wished to escape the
reproach of condemning his personal enemies, he fixed
this extraordinary tribunal at Chalcedon, on the Asiatic
side of the Bosphorus ; and transferred to the com-
missioners an absolute power to pronounce and execute
their final sentence, without delay and without appeal.
I'he office of president was exercised by the vener-
able praefect of the East, a second Sallust,'^* whose
"^ The two Sallusts, the praefect of Gaul and the prasfect of
the East, must be carefully distinguished. I have used the
361-363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 477
virtues conciliated the esteem of Greek sophists and
of Christian bishops. He was assisted by the eloquent
Mamertinus^ one of the consuls elect, whose merit is
loudly celebrated by the doubtful evidence of his own
applause. But the civil wisdom of two magistrates was
overbalanced by the ferocious violence of four generals,
Nevitta, Agilo, Jovinus, and Arbetio. Arbetio_, whom
the public would have seen with less surprise at the
bar than on the bench, was supposed to possess the
secret of the commission ; the armed and angry leaders
of the Jovian and Herculian bands encompassed the
tribunal ; and the judges were alternately swayed by
the laws of justice, and by the clamours of faction.
The chamberlain Eusebius, who had so long abused
the favour of Constantius, expiated, by an ignominious
death, the insolence, the corruption, and cruelty of his
servile reign. The executions of Paul and Apodemius
(the former of whom was burnt alive) were accepted
as an inadequate atonement by the widows and orphans
of so many hundred Romans, whom those legal tyrants
had betrayed and murdered. But Justice herself (if
we may use the pathetic expression of Ammianus)
appeared to weep over the fate of Ursulus, the treasurer
of the empire ; and his blood accused the ingratitude
of Julian, whose distress had been seasonably relieved
by the intrepid liberality of that honest minister. The
rage of the soldiers, whom he had provoked by his
indiscretion, was the cause and the excuse of his death ;
and the emperor, deeply wounded by his own re-
proaches and those of the public, offered some con-
solation to the family of Ursulus, by the restitution
of his confiscated fortunes. Before the end of the year
in which they had been adorned with the ensigns of
the praefecture and consulship,^^ Taurus and Florentius
surname of Secundus, as a convenient epithet. The second
Sallust extorted the esteem of the Christians themselves ; and
Gregory Nazianzen, who condemned his religion, has cele-
brated his virtues (Orat. iii. p. 90).
25 Such respect was still entertained for the venerable names
of the commonwealth that the pubhc was surprised and
478 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
were reduced to implore the clemency of the inexorable
tribunal of Chalcedou. The former was banished to
Vercellae in Italy, and a sentence of death was pro-
nounced against the latter. A wise prince should have
rewarded the crime of Taurus : the faithful minister,
when he was no longer able to oppose the progress
of a rebel, had taken refuge in the court of his
benefactor and his lawful sovereign. But the guilt
of Florentius justified the severity of the judges ; and
his escape served to display the magnanimity of Julian ;
who nobly checked the interested diligence of an
informer, and refused to learn what place concealed
the wretched fugitive from his just resentment. Some
months after the tribunal of Chalcedon had been
dissolved, the Praetorian vicegerent of Africa, the
notary Gaudentius, and Artemius, duke of Egypt,
were executed at Antioch. Artemius had reigned
the cruel and corrupt tyrant of a great province ;
Gaudentius had long practised the arts of calumny
against the innocent, the virtuous, and even the
person of Julian himself. Yet the circumstances of
their trial and condemnation were so unskilfully
managed, that these wicked men obtained, in the
public opinion, the glory of suffering from the obsti-
nate loyalty with which they had supported the cause
of Constantius. The rest of his servants were protected
by a general act of oblivion ; and they were left to
enjoy with impunity the bribes which they had accepted
either to defend the oppressed or to oppress the friend-
less. This measure, which, on the soundest principles
of policy, may deserve our approbation, was executed
in a manner which seemed to degrade the majesty of
the throne. Julian was tormented by the importunities
of a multitude, particularly of Egyptians, who loudly
demanded the gifts which they had imprudently or
illegally bestowed ; he foresaw the endless prosecution
scandalised to hear Taurus summoned as a criminal under
the consulship of Taurus. The summons of his colleague
Florentius was probably delayed till the commencement of
the ensuing year.
361-363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 479
of vexatious suits ; and he engaged a promise, which
ought always to have been sacred, that, if they would
repair to Chalcedon, he would meet them in person,
to hear and determine their complaints. But, as
soon as they were landed, he issued an absolute order,
which prohibited the watermen from transporting any
Egyptian to Constantinople ; and thus detained his
disappointed clients on the Asiatic shore, till, their
patience and money being utterly exhausted, they were
obliged to return with indignant murmurs to their
native country.
The numerous army of spies, of agents, and in-
formers, enlisted by Constantius to secure the repose of
one man and to interrupt that of millions, was imme-
diately disbanded by his generous successor. Julian
was slow in his suspicions and gentle in his punish-
ments ; and his contempt of treason was the result
of judgment, of vanity, and of courage. Conscious
of superior merit, he was persuaded that few among
his subjects would dare to meet him in the field, to
attempt his life, or even to seat themselves on his
vacant throne. The philosopher could excuse the
hasty sallies of discontent ; and the hero could despise
the ambitious projects which surpassed the fortune
or the abilities of the rash conspirators. A citizen
of Ancyra had prepared for his own use a purple
garment ; and this indiscreet action, which, under the
reign of Constantius, would have been considered as a
capital offence, was reported to Julian by the officious
importunity of a private enemy. The monarch, after
making some inquiry into the rank and character of
his rival, despatched the informer with a present of a
pair of purple slippers, to complete the magnificence
of his Imperial habit. A more dangerous conspiracy
was formed by ten of the domestic guards, who had
resolved to assassinate Julian in the field of exercise
near Antioch. Their intemperance revealed their
guilt ; and they were conducted in chains to the
presence of their injured sovereign, who, after a
lively representation of the wickedness and folly of
480 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d
their enterprise, instead of a death of torture, which
they deserved and expected, pronounced a sentence
of exile against the two principal offenders. The only-
instance in which Julian seemed to depart from his
accustomed clemency was the execution of a rash
youth, who, with a feeble hand, had aspired to seize
the reins of empire. But that youth was the son of
Marcellus, the general of cavalry, who in the first
campaign of the Gallic V7ar had deserted the standard
of the Ccesar and the republic. Without appearing
to indulge his personal resentment, Julian might
easily confound the crime of the son and of the
father : but he was reconciled by the distress of
Marcellus, and the liberality of the emperor en-
deavoured to heal the wound which had been inflicted
by the hand of justice.
Julian was not insensible of the advantages of
freedom. From his studies he had imbibed the spirit
of ancient sages and heroes ; his life and fortunes had
depended on the caprice of a tyrant ; and, when he
ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified
by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to
censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his
virtues. He sincerely abhorred the system of Oriental
despotism which Diocletian, Constantine, and the
patient habits of fourscore years had established in
the empire. A motive of superstition prevented the
execution of the design which Julian had frequently
meditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a
costly diadem : but he absolutely refused the title of
Dominus or Lord,-^ a word which was grown so familiar
to the ears of the Romans that they no longer re-
membered its servile and humiliating origin. ITie
ofllice, or rather the name, of consul, was cherished
2« Julian, in Misopogon. p. 343. As he never abolished, by
any public law, the proud appellations of Despot or Dominus,
they are still extant on his medals (Ducange, Fam. Byzantin.
PP- 38. 39) ; and the private displeasure which he affected
to express only gave a different tone to the servility of the
court. '
361-363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 481
by a prince who contemplated with reverence the
ruins of the republic ; and the same behaviour which
had been assumed by the prudence of Augustus was
adopted by Julian from choice and inclination. On
the calends of January, at break of day, the new
consuls, Mamertinus and Nevitta, hastened to the
palace to salute the emperor. As soon as he was
informed of their approach, he leaped from his throne,
eagerly advanced to meet them, and compelled the
blushing magistrates to receive the demonstrations
of his affected humility. From the palace they pro-
ceeded to the senate. Tlie emperor, on foot, marched
before their litters ; and the gazing multitude admired
the image of ancient times, or secretly blamed a
conduct which, in their eyes, degraded the majesty of
the purple. 2^ But the behaviour of Julian was uni-
formly supported. During the games of the Circus,
he had, imprudently or designedly, performed the
manumission of a slave in the presence of the consul.
The moment he was reminded that he had trespassed
on the jurisdiction of another magistrate, he con-
demned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold ;
and embraced this public occasion of declaring to the
world that he was subject, like the rest of his fellow-
citizens, to the laws, and even to the forms, of the
republic. The spirit of his administration, and his
regard for the place of his nativity, induced Julian
to confer on the senate of Constantinople, the same
honours, privileges, and authority, which were still
enjoyed by the senate of ancient Rome. A legal fiction
was introduced, and gradually established, that one
half of the national council had migrated into the
East : and the despotic successors of Julian, accepting
the title of Senators, acknowledged themselves the
members of a respectable body, which was permitted
to represent the majesty of the Roman name. From
Constantinople, the attention of the monarch was
27 The consul Mamertinus (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 28, 29, 30)
celebrates the auspicious day, like an eloquent slave, astonished
and intoxicated by the condescension of his master.
482 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
extended to the municipal senates of the provinces.
He abolished, by repeated edicts, the unjust and
pernicious exemptions which had withdrawn so many
idle citizens from the service of their country ; and
by imposing an equal distribution of public duties he
restored the strength, the splendour, or, according
to the glowing expressioi;! of Libanius, the soul of the
expiring cities of his empire. The venerable age of
Greece excited the most tender compassion in the
mind of Julian ; which kindled into rapture when he
recollected the gods, the heroes, and the men, superior
to heroes and to gods, who had bequeathed to the
latest posterity the monuments of their genius or the
example of their virtues. He relieved the distress, and
restored the beauty, of the cities of Epirus and Pelo-
ponnesus. Athens acknowledged him for her bene-
factor ; Argos, for her deliverer. The pride of Corinth,
again rising from her ruins with the honours of a Roman
colony, exacted a tribute from the adjacent republics, for
the purpose of defraying the games of the Isthmus,
which were celebrated in the amphitheatre with the
hunting of bears and panthers. From this tribute the
cities of Elis, of Delphi, and of Argos, which had in-
herited from their remote ancestors the sacred office of
perpetuating the Olympic, the Pythian, and the Nemean
games, claimed a just exemption. The immunity of
Elis and Delphi was respected by the Corinthians ; but
the poverty of Argos tempted the insolence of oppres-
sion ; and the feeble complaints of its deputies were
silenced by the decree of a provincial magistrate, who
seems to have consulted only the interest of the capital
in which he resided. Seven years after this sentence,
Julian allowed the cause to be referred to a superior
tribunal ; and his eloquence was interposed, most pro-
bably with success, in the defence of a city which
had been the royal seat of Agamemnon ^^ and had given
to Macedonia a race of kings and conquerors. ^^
2^ He reigned in Mycenae, at the distance of fifty stadia,
or six miles, from Argos : but these cities, which alternately
flourished, are confounded by the Greek poets.
29 This pedigree from Temenus and Hercules may be sus-
361-363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 483
The laborious administration of military and civil
affairs, which were multiplied in proportion to the
extent of the empire, exercised the abilities of Julian ;
but he frequently assumed the two characters of
Orator and of Judge, which are almost unknown to
the modern sovereigns of Europe. The arts of per-
suasion, so diligently cultivated by the first Caesars,
were neglected by the military ignorance, and Asiatic
pride, of their successors ; and, if they condescended
to harangue the soldiers, whom they feared, they
treated with silent disdain the senators, whom they
despised. The assemblies of the senate, which Con-
stantius had avoided, were considered by Julian as the
place where he could exhibit, with the most propriety,
the maxims of a republican and the talents of a
rhetorician. He alternately practised, as in a school
of declamation, the several modes of praise, of
censure, of exhortation ; and his friend Libanius has
remarked that the study of Homer taught him to
imitate the simple, concise style of Menelaus, the
copiousness of Nestor, whose words descended like
the flakes of a winter's snow ; or the pathetic and
forcible eloquence of Ulysses. The functions of a
judge, which are sometimes incompatible with those
of a prince, were exei'cised by Julian, not only as a
duty, but as an amusement : and, although he might
have trusted the integrity and discernment of his
Praetorian praefects, he often placed himself by their
side on the seat of judgment. The acute penetration
of his mind was agreeably occupied in detecting
and defeating the chicanery of the advocates, who
laboured to disguise the truth of facts and to pervert
the sense of the laws. He sometimes forgot the
gravity of his station, asked indiscreet or unseasonable
questions, and betrayed, by the loudness of his voice
picious ; yet it was allowed, after a strict inquiry by the judges
of the Olympic games, at a time when the Macedonian kings
were obscure and unpopular in Greece. When the Achaean
league declared against Philip, it was thought decent that the
deputies of Argos should retire.
484 THE DECLINE AND FALL
and the agitation of his body, the earnest vehemence
with which he maintained his opinion against the
judges, the advocates, and their clients. But his
knowledge of his own temper prompted him to
encourage, and even to solicit, the reproof of his
friends and ministers ; and, whenever they ventured
to oppose the irregular sallies of his passions, the
spectators could observe the shame, as well as the
gratitude, of their monarch. The decrees of Julian
were almost always founded on the principles of
justice ; and he had the firmness to resist the two
most dangerous temptations which assault the tribunal
of a sovereign under the specious forms of compassion
and equity. He decided the merits of the cause
without weighing the circumstances of the parties ;
and the poor, whom he wished to relieve, were con-
demned to satisfy the just demands of a noble and
wealthy adversary. He carefully distinguished the
judge from the legislator ; ^*^ and, though he medi-
tated a necessary reformation of the Roman juris-
prudence, he pronounced sentence according to the
strict and literal interpretation of those laws which
the magistrates were bound to execute and the
subjects to obey.
The generality of princes, if they were stripped of
their purple and cast naked into the world, would
immediately sink to the lowest rank of society, without
a hope of emerging from their obscurity. But the
personal merit of Julian was, in some measure, in-
dependent of his fortune. ^V^hatever had been his
choice of life, by the force of intrepid courage, lively
wit, and intense application, he would have obtained,
or at least he would have deserved, the highest
honours of his profession ; and Julian might have
raised himself to the rank of minister, or general,
of the state in which he was born a private citizen.
If the jealous caprice of power had disappointed his
30 Of the laws which Julian enacted in a reign of sixteen
months, fifty-four have been admitted into the Codes of Theo
dosius and Justinian (Gothofred. Chron. Legum, pp. 64-67).
OF THE ROiMAN EMPIRE 485
expectations ; if he had prudently declined the paths
of greatness^ the employment of the same talents
in studious solitude would have placed^ beyond the
reach of king;s, his present happiness and his immortal
fame. When we inspect, with minute or perhaps
malevolent attention, the portrait of Julian, some-
thing- seems wanting- to the g-race and perfection of
the whole fig-ure. His g-enius was less powerful and
sublime than that of Caesar ; nor did he possess the
consummate prudence of Augustus. The virtues of
Trajan appear more steady and natural, and the
philosophy of Marcus is more simple and consistent.
Yet Julian sustained adversity with firmness, and
prosperity with moderation. After an interval of one
hundred and twenty years from the death of Alexander
Severus, the Romans beheld an emperor who made no
distinction between his duties and his pleasures ; who
laboured to relieve the distress, and to revive the
spirit, of his subjects ; and who endeavoured always
to connect authority with merit, and happiness with
virtue. Even faction, and religious faction, was con-
strained to acknowledge the superiority of his g-enius,
in peace as well as in war ; and to confess, with a
sigh, that the apostate Julian was a lover of bis country,
and that he deserved the empire of the world.
486 THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAPTER XXIII
THE RELIGION OK JULIAN UNIVERSAL TOLERATION HE
ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE AND REFORM THE PAGAN
WORSHIP ; TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM
HIS ARTFUL PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS
MUTUAL ZEAL AND INJUSTICE
The character of Apostate has injured the reputation
of Julian ; and the enthusiasm which clouded his
virtues lias exair^erated the real and apparent mairni-
tude of his faults. Our partial ig-norance may repre-
sent him as a philosophic monarch, who studied to
protect, with an equal hand, the religious factions of
the empire ; and to allay the theological fever which
had inriamed the minds of the people from the edicts
of Diocletian to the exile of Athanasius. A more
accurate view of the character and conduct of Julian
will remove this favourable prepossession for a prince
who did not escape the general contagion of the times.
We enjoy the singular advantage of comparing the
pictures which have been delineated by his fondest
admirers and his implacable enemies. The actions of
Julian are faithfully related by a judicious and candid
historian, the impartial spectator of his life and death,
llie unanimous evidence of his contemporaries is con-
firmed by the public and private declarations of the
emperor himself; and his various writings express the
uniform tenor of his religious sentiments, which policy
would have prompted him to dissemble rather than to
affect. A devout and sincere attachment for the gods
of Athens and Rome constituted the ruling passion of
Julian ; the powers of an enlightened understanding
were betrayed and corrupted by the intiuence of super-
gtitious prejudice ; and the phantoms which existed
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 487
only in the mind of the emperor had a real and per-
nicious effect on the government of the empire. Hie
vehement zeal of the Christians, who despised the
worship, and overturned the altars, of those fabulous
deities, engaged their votary in a state of irreconcil-
able hostility with a very numerous party of his sub-
jects ; and he was sometimes tempted, by the desire of
victory or the shame of a repulse, to violate the laws
of prudence, and even of justice. The triumph of the
party which he deserted and opposed has fixed a stain
of infamy on the name of Julian ; and the unsuccessful
apostate has been overwhelmed with a torrent of pious
invectives, of which the signal was given by the
sonorous trumpet ^ of Gregory Nazianzen.^ The in-
teresting nature of the events which were crowded
into the short reign of this active emperor deserves a
just and circumstantial narrative. His motives, his
counsels, and his actions, as far as they are connected
with the history of religion, will be the subject of the
present chapter.
The cause of his strange and fatal apostacy may be
derived from the early period of his life, when he was
left an orphan in the hands of the murderers of his
family. The names of Christ and of Constantius, the
ideas of slavery and of religion, were soon associated
in a youthful imagination, which was susceptible of
1 The orator, with some eloquence, much enthusiasm, and
more vanity, addresses his discourse to heaven and earth, to
men and angels, to the living and the dead ; and above all, to
the great Constantius (et tu atcrOrjacs, an odd Pagan expression).
He concludes with a bold assurance that he has erected a
monument not less durable, and much more portable, than the
columns of Hercules.
- See this long invective, which has been injudiciously divided
into two orations in Gregory's Works, torn. i. pp. 49-134. Paris,
1630, It was published by Gregory and his friend Basil (iv. p.
133) about six months after the death of Julian, when his
remains had been carried to Tarsus (iv. p. 120) ; but while
Jovian was still on the throne (iii. p. 54, iv. p. 117). I have
derived much assistance from a French version and remarks,
printed at Lyons 173 s.
488 THE DECLINE AND FALL
the most lively impressions. The care of his infancy
was entrusted to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia,^ who
was related to him on the side of his mother ; and, till
Julian reached the twentieth year of his age, he re-
ceived from his Christian preceptors the education, not
of a hero, but of a saint. The emperor, less jealous of
a heavenly than of an earthly crown, contented himself
with the imperfect character of a catechumen, while he
bestowed the advantages of baptism* on the nephews
of Constantine.^ They were even admitted to the
inferior offices of the ecclesiastical order ; and Julian
publicly read the Holy Scriptures in the church of
Nicomedia. The study of religion, which they assidu-
ously cultivated, appeared to produce the fairest fruits
of faith and devotion. They prayed, they fasted, they
distributed alms to the poor, gifts to the clergy, and
oblations to the tombs of the martyrs ; and the splendid
monument of St. Mamas, at Caesarea, was erected, or
at least was undertaken, by the joint labour of Gallus
and Julian.^ They respectfully conversed with the
bishops who were eminent for superior sanctity, and
solicited the benediction of the monks and hermits who
had introduced into Cappadocia the voluntary hard-
ships of the ascetic life.^ As the two princes advanced
3 Nicomedias ab Eusebio educatus Episcopo, quem genere
longius contingebat (Amrnian. xxii. 9). Julian never expresses
any gratitude towards that Arian prelate ; but he celebrates
his preceptor, the eunuch Mardonius, and describes his mode
of education, which inspired his pupil with a passionate admira-
tion for the genius, and perhaps, the religion, of Homer.
* Greg. Naz. iii. p. 70. He laboured to efface that holy mark
in the blood, perhaps, of a Taurobolium.
5 Julian himself assures the Alexandrians that he had been a
Christian (he must mean a sincere one) till the twentieth year
of his age.
6 The share of the work which had been allotted to Gallus
was prosecuted with vigour and success ; but the earth obstin-
ately rejected and subverted the structures which were imposed
by the sacrilegious hand of Julian. Such a partial earthquake,
attested by many living spectators, would form one of the
clearest miracles in ecclesiastical story.
' Tht philosopher (Fragment, p. 228) ridicules the iron chains,
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 489
towards the years of manhood, they discovered, in
their religious sentiments, the difference of their char-
acters. The dull and obstinate understanding of
Gallus embraced, with implicit zeal, the doctrines of
Christianity ; which never influenced his conduct or
moderated his passions. The mild disposition of the
younger brother was less repugnant to the precepts
of the gospel ; and his active curiosity might have
been gratified by a theological system which explains
the mysterious essence of the Deity and opens the
boundless prospect of invisible and future worlds.
But the independent spirit of Julian refused to yield
the passive and unresisting obedience which was re-
quired, in the name of religion, by the haughty
ministers of the church. Their speculative opinions
were imposed as positive laws, and guarded by the
terrors of eternal punishments ; but, while they pre-
scribed the rigid formulary of the thoughts, the words,
and the actions of the young prince ; whilst they
silenced his objections and severely checked the
freedom of his inquiries, they secretly provoked his
impatient genius to disclaim the authority of his
ecclesiastical guides. He was educated in the Lesser
Asia, amidst the scandals of the Arian controversy.^
The fierce contests of the eastern bishops, the incessant
alterations of their creeds, and the profane motives
which appeared to actuate their conduct, insensibly
strengthened the prejudice of Julian, that they neither
understood nor believed the religion for which they so
fiercely contended. Instead of listening to the proofs
&c. of these solitary fanatics, who had forgot that man is by
nature a gentle and social animal, avOpwirov (Pvaei ttoXltikov
^(Joov Kal r]fx4pov. The Pagan supposes that, because they had
renounced the gods, they were possessed and tormented by evil
daemons.
8 See Julian apud Cyril. 1. vi. p. 206, 1. viii. pp. 253, 262. " You
persecute," says he, " those heretics who do not mourn the dead
man precisely in the way which you approve." He shows him-
self a tolerable theologian ; but he maintains that the Christian
Trinity is not derived from the doctrine of Paul, of Jesus, or of
Moses.
VOL. II. Q 2
490 THE DECLINE AND FALL
of Christianity with that favourable attention which
adds weight to the most respectable evidence, he heard
with suspicion, and disputed with obstinacy and acute-
ness, the doctrines for which he already entertained
an invincible aversion. Whenever the youn^ princes
were directed to compose declamations on the subject
of the prevailing- controversies, Julian always declared
himself the advocate of Paganism ; under the specious
excuse that, in the defence of the weaker cause, his
learning and ingenuity might be more advantageously
exercised and displayed.
As soon as GalJus was invested with the honours of
the purple, Julian was permitted to breathe the air of
freedom, of literature, and of Paganism. The crowd
of sophists, who were attracted by the taste and liber-
ality of their royal pupil, had formed a strict alliance
between the learning and the religion of Greece ; and
the poems of Homer, instead of being admired as the
original productions of human genius, were seriously
ascribed to the heavenly inspiration of Apollo and the
muses. The deities of Olympus, as they are painted
by the immortal bard, imprint themselves on the
minds which are the least addicted to superstitious
credulity. Our familiar knowledge of their names
and characters, their forms and attributes, seems to
bestow on those airy beings a real and substantial
existence ; and the pleasing enchantment produces an
imperfect and momentary assent of the imagination to
those fables which are the most repugnant to our
reason and experience. In the age of Julian every
circumstance contributed to prolong and fortify the
illusion ; the magnificent temples of Greece and Asia ;
the works of those artists who had expressed, in paint-
ing or in sculpture, the divine conceptions of the poet;
the pomp of festivals and sacrifices ; the successful
arts of divination ; the popular traditions of oracles
and prodigies ; and the ancient practice of two thou-
sand years. The weakness of polytheism was, in some
measure, excused by the moderation of its claims ; and
the devotion of the Pagans was not incompatible with
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 491
the most licentious scepticism.^ Instead of an indivi-
sible and regular system, which occupies the whole
extent of the believing mind, the mythology of the
Greeks was composed of a thousand loose and flexible
parts, and the servant of the gods was at liberty to
define the degree and measure of his religious faith.
The creed which Julian adopted for his own use was of
the largest dimensions ; and, by a strange contradic-
tion, he disdained the salutary yoke of the gospel,
whilst he made a voluntary offering of his reason on
the altars of Jupiter and Apollo. One of the orations
of Julian is consecrated to the honour of Cybele, the
mother of the gods, who required from her effeminate
priests the bloody sacrifice, so rashly performed by the
madness of the Phrygian boy. The pious emperor
condescends to relate, without a blush, and without a
smile, the voyage of the goddess from the shores of
Pergamus to the mouth of the Tiber, and the stupen-
dous miracle, which convinced the senate and people
of Rome that the lump of clay which their ambassadors
had transported over the seas was endowed with life,
and sentiment, and divine power. ^"^ For the truth of
this prodigy, he appeals to the public monuments of
the city ; and censures, with some acrimony, the sickly
and affected taste of those men who impertinently
derided the sacred traditions of their ancestors.
But the devout philosopher, who sincerely embraced
and warmly encouraged the superstition of the people,
reserved for himself the privilege of a liberal interpre-
tation ; and silently withdrew from the foot of the
9 A modern philosopher has ingeniously compared the dif-
ferent operation of theism and polytheism, with regard to the
doubt or conviction which they produce in the human mind.
See Hume's Essays, vol. ii. pp. 444-457, in 8vo edit. 1777.
10 The Idaean mother landed m Italy about the end of the
second Punic war. The miracle of Claudia, either virgin or
matron, who cleared her fame by disgracing the graver modesty
of the Roman ladies, is attested by a cloud of witnesses. Their
evidence is collected by Drakenborch (ad Silium Italicura,
xvii. 33) : but we may observe that Livy (xxix. 14) slides over
the transaction with discreet ambiguity.
492 THE DECLINE AND FALL
altars into the sanctuary of the temple. The extrava-
gance of the Grecian mythology proclaimed with a
clear and audible voice that the pious inquirer^ instead
of being scandalised or satisfied with the literal sense,
should diligently explore the occult wisdom which had
been disguised, by the prudence of antiquity, under
the mask of folly and of fable. The philosophers of
the Platonic school, Plotinus, Porphyry, and the divine
lamblichua, were admired as the most skilful masters
of this allegorical science which laboured to soften and
harmonise the deformed features of paganism. Julian
himself, who was directed in the mysterious pursuit
by -lEdesius, the venerable successor of lamblichus,
aspired to the possession of a treasure which he
esteemed, if we may credit his solemn asseverations,
far above the empire of the world. ^^ It was indeed a
treasure which derived its value only from opinion ;
and every artist who flattered himself that he had
extracted the precious ore from the surrounding dross
claimed an equal right of stamping the name and
figure the most agreeable to his peculiar fancy. The
fable of Atys and Cybele had been already explained
by Porphyry ; but his labours served only to animate
tiie pious industry of Julian, who invented and pub-
lished his own allegory of that ancient and mystic tale.
This freedom of interpretation, which might gratify
the pride of the Platonists, exposed the vanity of their
art. Without a tedious detail, the modern reader
could not form a just idea of the strange allusions,
the forced etymologies, the solemn trifling, and the
impenetrable obscurity of these sages, who professed
to reveal the system of the universe. As the traditions
of Pagan mythology were variously related, the sacred
interpreters were at liberty to select the most con-
venient circumstances ; and, as they translated an
arbitrary cypher, they could extract from any fable
11 Julian, Orat. vii. pp. 222. He swears with the most
fervent and enthusiastic devotion ; and trembles lest he should
betray too much of these holy mysteries, which the profane
might deride with an impious sardonic laugh.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 493
any sense which was adapted to their favourite system
of religion and philosophy. The lascivious form of a
naked Venus was tortured into the discovery of some
moral precept or some physical truth : and the cas-
tration of Atys explained the revolution of the sun
between the tropics or the separation of the human
soul from vice and error. ^^
The theological system of Julian appears to have
contained the sublime and important principles of
natural religion. But, as the faith which is not
founded on revelation must remain destitute of any
firm assurance, the disciple of Plato imprudently re-
lapsed into the habits of vulgar superstition ; and the
popular and philosophic notion of the Deity seems to
have been confounded in the practice, the writings,
and even in the mind of Julian. The pious emperor
acknowledged and adored the Eternal Cause of the
universe, to whom he ascribed all the perfections of
an infinite nature, invisible to the eyes, and inaccess-
ible to the understanding, of feeble mortals. The
Supreme God had created, or rather, in the Platonic
language, had generated, the gradual succession of
dependent spirits, of gods, of deemons, of heroes, and
of men ; and every being which derived its existence
immediately from the First Cause received the inherent
gift of immortality. That so precious an advantage
might not be lavished upon unworthy objects, the
Creator had entrusted to the skill and power of the
inferior gods, the office of forming the human body,
and of arranging the beautiful harmony of the animal,
the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. To the
conduct of these divine ministers he delegated the
temporal government of this lower world ; but their
imperfect administration is not exempt from discord
12 See the fifth oration of Julian. But all the allegories which
ever issued from the Platonic school are not worth the short
poem of Catullus on the same extraordinary subject. The
transition of Atys from the wildest enthusiasm to sober pathetic
complaint, for his irretrievable loss, must inspire a man with
pity, an eunuch with despair.
494 THE DECLINE AND FALL
or error. The earth, and its inhabitants, are divided
among them, and the characters of Mars or Minerva,
of Mercury or Venus, may be distinctly traced in the
laws and manners of their peculiar votaries. As long
as our immortal souls are confined in a mortal prison,
it is our interest, as well as our duty, to solicit the
favour, and to deprecate the wrath, of the powers of
heaven ; whose pride is gratified by the devotion of
mankind; and whose grosser parts may be supposed
to derive some nourishment from the fumes of sacri-
fice. ^^ The inferior gods might sometimes condescend
to animate the statues, and to inhabit the temples,
which were dedicated to their honour. They might
occasionally visit the earth, but the heavens were the
proper throne and symbol of their glory. The invari-
able order of the sun, moon, and stars, was hastily
admitted by Julian as a proof of their eternal dura-
tion ; and their eternity was a sufficient evidence
that they were the workmanship, not of an inferior
deity, but of the Omnipotent King. In the system of
the Platonists the visible, was a type of the invisible,
world. The celestial bodies, as they were informed
by a divine spirit, might be considered as the ob-
jects the most worthy of religious worship. ITie
Sun, whose genial influence pervades and sustains the
universe, justly claimed the adoration of mankind, as
the bright representative of the Logos, the lively,
the rational, the beneficent image of the intellectual
Father.
In every age, the absence of genuine inspiration is
supplied by the strong illusions of enthusiasm and
the mimic arts of imposture. If, in the time of
Julian, these arts had been practised only by the
Pagan priests, for the support of an expiring cause,
13 Julian adopts this gross conception, by ascribing it to his
favourite Marcus Antoninus (Csesares, p. 333). The Stoics and
Platonists hesitated between the analogy of bodies and the
purity of spirits ; yet the gravest philosophers inclined to the
whimsical fancy of Aristophanes and Lucian that an unbelieving
age might starve the immortal gods.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 495
some indulgence might perhaps be allowed to the
interest and habits of the sacez-dotal character. But
it may appear a subject of surprise and scandal that
the philosophers themselves should have contributed
to abuse the superstitious credulity of mankind,^*
and that the Grecian mysteries should have been
supported by the magic or theurgy of the modern
Platonists. They arrogantly pretended to control
the order of nature^ to explore the secrets of futurity,
to command the service of the inferior daemons, to
enjoy the view and conversation of the superior gods,
and, by disengaging the soul from her material bands,
to re-unite that immortal particle with the Infinite
and Divine Spirit.
The devout and fearless curiosity of Julian tempted
the philosophers with the hopes of an easy conquest ;
which, from the situation of their young proselyte,
might be productive of the most important conse-
quences. Julian imbibed the first rudiments of the
Platonic doctrines from the mouth of iEdesius, who
had fixed at Pergamus his wandering and persecuted
school. But, as the declining strength of that
venerable sage was unequal to the ardour, the dili-
gence, the rapid conception of his pupil, two of his
most learned disciples, Chrysanthes and Eusebius,
supplied, at his own desire, the place of their aged
master. These philosophers seem to have prepared
and distributed their respective parts ; and they art-
fully contrived, by dark hints and affected disputes,
to excite the impatient hopes of the aspirant, till
they delivered him into the hands of their associate
Maximus, the boldest and most skilful master of the
Theurgic science. By his hands Julian was secretly
14 The sophists of Eunapius perform as many miracles as the
saints of the desert ; and the only circumstance in their favour
is that they are of a less gloomy complexion. Instead of devils
with horns and tails, lamblichus evoked the genii of love, Eros
and Anteros, from two adjacent fountains. Two beautiful boys
issued from the water, fondly embraced him as their father, and
retired at his command.
496 THE DECLINE AND FALL
initiated at Ephesus, in the twentieth year of his age.
His residence at Athens confirmed this unnatural
alliance of philosophy and superstition. He obtained
the privilege of a solemn initiation into the mysteries
of Eleusis, which, amidst the general decay of the
Grecian worship, still retained some vestiges of their
primaeval sanctity ; and such was the zeal of Julian
that he afterwards invited the Eleusinian pontiff to
the court of Gaul, for the sole purpose of consum-
mating, by mystic rites and sacrifices, the great work
of his sanctification. As these ceremonies were per-
formed in the dei>th of caverns, and in the silence
of the night, and as the inviolable secret of the
mysteries was preserved by the discretion of the
initiated, 1 shall not presume to describe the horrid
sounds and fiery apparitions, which were presented
to the senses, or the imagination, of the credulous
aspirant,^^ till the visions of comfort and knowledge
broke upon him in a blaze of celestial light. In
the caverns of Ephesus and Eleusis, the mind
of Julian was penetrated with sincere, deep, and
unalterable enthusiasm ; though he might some-
times exhibit the vicissitudes of pious fraud and hypo-
crisy, which may be observed, or at least suspected,
in the characters of the most conscientious fanatics.
From that moment he consecrated his life to the service
of the gods ; and, while the occupations of war, of
government, and of study, seemed to claim the whole
measure of his time, a stated portion of the hours of
the night was invariably reserved for the exercise of
private devotion. The temperance which adorned the
severe manners of the soldier and the philosopher was
connected with some strict and frivolous rules of re-
ligious abstinence ; and it was in honour of Pan or
Mercury, of Hecate or Isis, that Julian, on particular
15 When Julian, in a momentary panic, made the sign of the
cross, the daemons instantly disappeared. Gregory supposes
that they were frightened, but the priests declared that they
were indignant. The reader, according to the measure of his
faith, will determine this profound question.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 497
days, denied himself the use of some particular food,
which might have been offensive to his tutelar deities.
By these voluntary fasts, he prepared his senses and
his understanding for the frequent and familiar visits
with which he was honoured by the celestial powers.
Notwithstanding the modest silence of Julian himself,
we may learn from his faithful friend, the orator
Libanius, that he lived in a perpetual intercourse with
the gods and goddesses ; that they descended upon
earth, to enjoy the conversation of their favourite hero ;
that they gently interrupted his slumbers, by touching
his hand or his hair ; that they warned him of every
impending danger, and conducted him, by their in-
fallible wisdom, in every action of his life ; and that
he had acquired such an intimate knowledge of his
heavenly guests, as readily to distinguish the voice of
Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the form of Apollo
from the figure of Hercules. ^^ These sleeping or
waking visions, the ordinary effects of abstinence and
fanaticism, would almost degrade the emperor to the
level of an Egyptian monk. But the useless lives of
Antony or Pachomius were consumed in these vain
occupations. Julian could break from the dream of
superstition to arm himself for battle ; and, after van-
quishing in the field the enemies of Rome, he calmly
retired into his tent, to dictate the wise and salutary
laws of an empire, or to indulge his genius in the ele-
gant pursuits of literature and philosophy.
The important secret of the apostacy of Julian was
entrusted to the fidelity of the initiated, with whom he
was united by the sacred ties of friendship and religion. ^^
The pleasing rumour was cautiously circulated among
16 Julian's modesty confined him to obscure and occasional
hints ; but Libanius expatiates with pleasure on the fasts and
visions of the religious hero.
17 Gallus had some reasons to suspect the secret apostacy of
his brother ; and in a letter, which may be received as genuine,
he exhorts Julian to adhere to the religion of their ancestors ;
an argument which, as it should seem, was not yet perfectly
ripe.
498 THE DECLINE AND FALL
the adherents of the ancient worship ; and his future
greatness became the object of the hopes, the prayers,
and the predictions of the pagans, in every province of
the empire. From the zeal and virtues of their royal
proselyte, they fondly expected the cure of every evil
and the restoration of every blessing ; and, instead of
disapproving of the ardour of their pious wishes, Julian
ingenuously confessed that he was ambitious: to attain a
situation in which he might be useful to his country
and to his religion. But this religion was viewed with
an hostile eye by the successor of Constantine, whose
capricious passions alternately saved and threatened
the life of Julian. The arts of magic and divination
were strictly prohibited under a despotic government
which condescended to fear them ; and, if the pagans
were reluctantly indulged in the exercise of their super-
stition, the rank of Julian would have excepted him
from the general toleration. The apostate soon became
the presumptive heir of the monarchy, and his death
could alone have appeased the just apprehensions of
the Christians.^^ But the young prince, who aspired
to the glory of a hero rather than of a martyr, consulted
his safety by dissembling his religion ; and the easy
temper of polytheism permitted him to join in the public
worship of a sect which he inwardly despised. Liba-
nius has considered the hypocrisy of his friend as a
subject, not of censure, but of praise. " As the statues
of the gods," says that orator, "which have been de-
filed with filth, are again placed in a magnificent
temple ; so the beauty of truth was seated in the mind
of Julian, after it had been purified from the errors
and follies of his education. His sentiments were
changed ; but, as it would have been dangerous to have
avowed his sentiments, his conduct still continued the
same. Very different from the ass in JEsop, who dis-
guised himself with a lion's hide, our lion was obliged
to conceal himself under the skin of an ass ; and, while
18 Gregory (iii. p. 50), with inhuman zeal, censures Con-
stantius for sparing the infant apostate {KaKu>i audivTo).
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 499
he embraced the dictates of reason, to obey the laws of
prudence and necessity." The dissimulation of Julian
lasted above ten years, from his secret initiation at
Ephesus to the beginning of the civil war ; when he
declared himself at once the implacable enemy of Christ
and of Constantius. The state of constraint might
contribute to strengthen his devotion ; and, as soon as
he had satisfied the obligation of assisting, on solemn
festivals, at the assemblies of the Christians, Julian
returned, with the impatience of a lover, to burn his
free and voluntary incense on the domestic chapels of
Jupiter and Mercury. But, as every act of dissimula-
tion must be painful to an ingenuous spirit, the pro-
fession of Christianity increased the aversion of Julian
for a religion which oppressed the freedom of his mind
and compelled him to hold a conduct repugnant to
the noblest attributes of human' nature, sincerity and
courage.
The inclination of Julian might prefer the gods of
Homer, and of the Scipios, to the new faith which his
uncle had established in the Roman empire ; and in
which he himself had been sanctified by the sacrament
of baptism. But, as a philosopher, it was incumbent
on him to justify his dissent from Christianity, which
was supported by the number of its converts, by the
chain of prophecy, the splendour of miracles, and the
weight of evidence. The elaborate work, which he
composed amidst the preparations of the Persian war,
contained the substance of those arguments which he
had long revolved in his mind. Some fragments have
been transcribed and preserved by his adversary, the
vehement Cyril of Alexandria ; ^^ and they exhibit a
very singular mixture of wit and learning, of sophistry
19 About seventy years after the death of Julian, he executed
a task which had been feebly attempted by Philip of Side, a
prolix and contemptible writer. Even the work of Cyril has
not entirely satisfied the most favourable judges : and the Abb^
de la Bl^terie (Preface a I'Hist. de Jovien, pp. 30, 32) wishes
that some thiologien philosophe (a strange centaur) would under-
take the refutation of Julian.
500 THE DECLINE AND FALL
and fanaticism. The elegance of the style, and the
rank of the author, recommended his writings to the
public attention ; and in the impious list of the
enemies of Christianity, the celebrated name of
Porphyry was effaced by the superior merit or reputa-
tion of Julian. The minds of the faithful were either
seduced, or scandalised, or alarmed ; and the pagans,
who sometimes presumed to engage in the unequal
dispute, derived from the popular work of their
Imperial missionary an inexhaustible supply of falla-
cious objections. But in the assiduous prosecution of
these theological studies, the emperor of the Romans
imbibed the illiberal prejudices and passions of a
polemic divine. He contracted an irrevocable obliga-
tion to maintain and propagate his religious opinions ;
and, whilst he secretly applauded the strength and
dexterity with which he wielded the weapons of con-
troversy, he was tempted to distrust the sincerity, or
to despise the understandings, of his antagonists,
who could obstinately resist the force of reason and
eloquence.
The Christians, who beheld with horror and indigna-
tion the apostacy of Julian, had much more to fear
from his power than from his arguments. The pagans,
who were conscious of his fervent zeal, expected, perhaps
with impatience, that the flames of persecution should
be immediately kindled against the enemies of the
gods ; and that the ingenious malice of Julian would
invent some cruel refinements of death and torture,
which had been unknown to the rude and inexperi-
enced fury of his predecessors. But the hopes, as
well as the fears, of the religious factions were appar-
ently disappointed by the prudent humanity of a prince
who was careful of his own fame, of the public peace,
and of the rights of mankind. Instructed by history
and reflection, Julian was persuaded that, if the
diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by
salutary violence, neither steel nor fire can eradicate
the erroneous opinions of the mind. The reluctant
victim may be dragged to the foot of the altar ; but
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 601
the heart still abhors and disclaims the sacrilegious act
of the hand. Relig-ious obstinacy is hardened and
exasperated by oppression ; and^ as soon as the per-
secution subsides, those who have yielded are restored
as penitents^ and those who have resisted are honoured
as saints and martyrs. If Julian adopted the- unsuc-
cessful cruelty of Diocletian and his colleagues^ he was
sensible that he should stain his memory with the name
of tyrant^ and add new glories to the Catholic church,
which had derived strength and increase from the
severity of the pagan magistrates. Actuated by these
motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of
an unsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by an
edict which was not unworthy of a statesman or a
philosopher. He extended to all tbe inhabitants of
the Roman world tbe benefits of a free and equal
toleration ; and the only hardship which he inflicted on
the Christians was to deprive them of the power of
tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom they stigma-
tised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics.
The pagans received a gracious permission, or rather
an express order, to open all their temples ; ^'^ and
they were at once delivered from the oppressive laws
and arbitrary vexations which they had sustained
under the reign of Constantine and of his sons. At
the same time, the bishops and clergy who had been
banished by the Arian monarch were recalled from
exile and restored to their respective churches ; the
Donatists, the Xovatians, the Macedonians, the
Eunomians, and those who, with a more prosperous
fortune, adhered to the doctrine of the council of
Nice. Julian, who understood and derided their
theological disputes, invited to the palace the
20 In Greece the temples of Minerva were opened by his
express command, before the death of Constantius ; and Julian
declares himself a pagan in his public manifesto to the
Athenians. This unquestionable evidence may correct the
hasty assertion of Ammianus, who seems to suppose Constanti-
nople to be the place where he discovered his attachment to the
gods.
602 THE DECLINE AND FALL
leaders of the hostile sects, that he might enjoy the
agreeable spectacle of their furious encounters. The
clamour of controversy sometimes provoked the
emperor to exclaim, " Hear me ! the Franks have
heard me, and the Alemanni ; " but he soon discovered
that he was now engaged with more obstinate and
implacable enemies ; and, though he exerted the
powers of oratory to persuade them to live in con-
cord, or at least in peace, he was perfectly satisfied,
before he dismissed them from his presence, that he
had nothing to dread from the union of the Christians.
The impartial Ammianus has ascribed this affected
clemency to the desire of fomenting the intestine
divisions of the church ; and the insidious design of
undermining the foundations of Christianity was
inseparably connected with the zeal which Julian
professed to restore the ancient religion of the
empire.
As soon as he ascended the throne, he assumed,
according to the custom of his predecessors, the char-
acter of supreme pontiff; not only as the most honour-
able title of Imperial greatness, but as a sacred and
important office, the duties of which he was resolved
to execute with pious diligence. As the business of
the state prevented the emperor from joining every
day in the public devotion of his subjects, he dedicated
a domestic chapel to his tutelar deity the Sun ; his
gardens were filled with statues and altars of the
gods ; and each apartment of the palace displayed the
appearance of a magnificent temple. Every morning
he saluted the parent of light with a sacrifice ; the
blood of another victim was shed at the moment
when the Sun sunk below the horizon ; and the Moon,
the Stars, and the Genii of the night, received their
respective and seasonable honours from the inde-
fatigable devotion of Julian. On solemn festivals,
he regularly visited the temple of the god or goddess
to whom the day was peculiarly consecrated, and
endeavoured to excite the religion of the magistrates
and people by the example of his own zeal. Instead
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 603
of maintaining the lofty state of a monarch, distin-
guished by the splendour of his purple, and encom-
passed by the golden shields of his guards, Julian
solicited, with respectful eagerness, the meanest offices
which contributed to the worship of the gods. Amidst
the sacred but licentious crowd of priests, of inferior
ministers, and of female dancers, who were dedicated
to the service of the temple, it was the business
of the emperor to bring the wood, to blow the fire,
to handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, and,
thrusting his bloody hand into the bowels of the
expiring animal, to draw forth the heart or liver, and
to read, with the consummate skill of an haruspex,
the imaginary signs of future events. The wisest of
the pagans censured this extravagant superstition which
affected to despise the restraints of prudence and
decency. Under the reign of a prince who practised
the rigid maxims of economy the expense of religious
worship consumed a very large portion of the revenue ;
a constant supply of the scarcest and most beautiful
birds was transported from distant climates, to bleed
on the altars of the gods ; an hundred oxen were
frequently sacrificed by Julian on one and the same
day ; and it soon became a popular jest that, if he
should return with conquest from the Persian war,
the breed of horned cattle must infallibly be extin-
guished. Yet this expense may appear inconsiderable,
when it is compared with the splendid presents which
were offered, either by the hand or by order of tlie
emperor, to all the celebrated places of devotion in
the Roman world ; and with the sums allotted to
repair and decorate the ancient temples, which had
suffered the silent decay of time or the recent injuries
of Christian rapine. Encouraged by the example, the
exhortations, the liberality, of their pious sovereign,
the cities and families resumed the practice of their
neglected ceremonies. "Every part of the world,"
exclaims Libanius with devout transport, " displayed
the triumph of religion ; and the grateful prospect of
flaming altars, bleeding victims, the smoke of incense,
604 THE DECLINE AND FALL
and a solemn train of priests and prophets, without
fear and without danger. The sound of prayer and
of music was heard on the tops of the highest moun-
tains ; and the same ox afforded a sacrifice for the
gods and a supper for their joyous votaries."
Bat the genius and power of Julian were unequal to
the enterprise of restoring a religion which was desti-
tute of theological principles,, of moral precepts, and
of ecclesiastical discipline ; which rapidly hastened to
decay and dissolution, and was not susceptible of any
solid or consistent reformation. The jurisdiction of
the supreme pontiff, more especially after that office
had been united with the Imperial dignity, compre-
hended the whole extent of the Roman empire.
Julian named for his vicars, in the several provinces,
the priests and philosophers whom he esteemed the
best qualified to co-operate in the execution of his
great design ; and his pastoral letters, if we may use
that name, still represent a very curious sketch of his
wishes and intentions. He directs that in every city
the sacerdotal order should be composed, without any
distinction of birth or fortune, of those persons who
were the most conspicuous for their love of the gods
and of men. '' If they are guilty," continues he, ^^of
an)' scandalous offence, they should be censured or
degraded by the superior pontiff ; but, as long as they
retain their rank, they are entitled to the respect of
the magistrates and people. Their humility may be
sho^Ti in the plainness of their domestic garb ; their
dignity, in the pomp of holy vestments. A\'hen they
are summoned in their turn to officiate before the
altar, they ought not, during the appointed number
of days, to depart from the precincts of the temple ;
nor should a single day be suffered to elapse without
the prayers and the sacrifice, which they are obliged
to offer for the prosperity of the state and of indi-
viduals. The exercise of their sacred functions re-
quires an immaculate purity, both of mind and body ;
and, even when they are dismissed from the temple to
the occupations of common life, it is incumbent on
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 606
them to excel in decency and virtue the rest of their
fellow-citizens. The priest of the gods should never
be seen in theatres or taverns. His conversation
should be chaste, his diet temperate, his friends of
honourable reputation ; and, if he sometimes visits the
Forum or the Palace, he should appear only as the
advocate of those who have vainly solicited either
justice or mercy. His studies should be suited to
the sanctity of his profession. Licentious tales, or
comedies, or satires, must be banished from his library ;
which ought solely to consist of historical and philo-
sophical writings ; of history which is founded in truth,
and of philosophy which is connected with religion.
The impious opinions of the Epicureans and Sceptics
deserve his abhorrence and contempt ; ^^ but he should
diligently study the systems of Pythagoras, of Plato,
and of the Stoics, which unanimously teach that there
are gods ; that the world is governed by their provi-
dence ; that their goodness is the source of every tem-
poral blessing ; and that they have prepared for the
human soul a future state of reward or punishment."
The Imperial pontiff inculcates, in the most persuasive
language, the duties of benevolence and hospitality ;
exhorts his inferior clergy to recommend the universal
practice of those virtues ; promises to assist their
indigence from the public treasury ; and declares his
resolution of establishing hospitals in every city, where
the poor should be received without any invidious dis-
tinction of country or of religion. Julian beheld with
envy the wise and humane regulations of the church ;
and he very frankly confesses his intention to deprive
the Christians of the applause, as well as advantage,
which they had acquired by the exclusive practice of
charity and beneficence.^^ The same spirit of imitation
31 The exultation of Julian that these impious sects, and even
their wTitings, are extinguished may be consistent enough with
the sacerdotal character : but it is unworthy of a philosopher
to wish that any opinions and arguments the most repugnant to
his own should be concealed from the knowledge of mankind.
22 Yet he insinuates that the Christians, under the pretence
506 THE DECLINE AND FALL
might dispose the emperor to adopt several ecclesiasti-
cal institutions, the use and importance of which were
approved by the success of his enemies. But, if these
imaginary plans of reformation had been realised, the
forced and imperfect copy would have been less bene-
ficial to Paganism than honourable to Christianity.*'
The Gentiles, who peaceably followed the customs of
their ancestors, were rather surprised than pleased
with the introduction of foreign manners ; and, in the
short period of his reign, Julian had frequent occasions
to complain of the want of fervour of his own party.^*
The enthusiasm of Julian prompted him to embrace
the friends of Jupiter as his personal friends and
brethren ; and, though he partially overlooked the
merit of Christian constancy, he admired and rewarded
the noble perseverance of those Gentiles who had pre-
ferred the favour of the gods to that of the emperor.**
If they cultivated the literature, as well as the religion,
of the Greeks, they acquired an additional claim to
the friendship of Julian, who ranked the Muses in the
number of his tutelar deities. In the religion which he
had adopted, piety and learning were almost synony-
mous ; and a crowd of poets, of rhetoricians, and of
philosophers, hastened to the Imperial court, to occupy
the vacant places of the bishops who had seduced the
of charity, inveigled children from their religion and parents,
conveyed them on ship-board, and devoted those victims to
a life of poverty or servitude in a remote country. Had the
charge been proved, it was his duty, not to complain, but to
punish.
25 Gregory Nazianzen is facetious, ingenious, and argu-
mentative. Orat. iii. pp. loi, 102, &c. He ridicules the folly
of such vain imitation ; and amuses himself with inquiring,
what lessons, moral or theological, could be extracted from the
Grecian fables.
"^ He accuses one of his pontiffs of a secret confederacy with
the Christian bishops and presbyters.
26 He praises the fidelity of Callixene, priestess of Ceres,
who had been twice as constant as Penelope, and revs^ards her
with the priesthood of the Phr>'gian goddess at Pessinus. He
applauds the firmness of Sopater of Hierapolis, who had been
repeatedly pressed by Constantius and Gallus to apostatise.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 607
credulity of Constantius. His successor esteemed the
ties of common initiation as far more sacred than those
of consanguinity : he chose his favourites among the
sages who were deeply skilled in the occult sciences of
magic and divination ; and every impostor who pre-
tended to reveal the secrets of futurity was assured of
enjoying the present hour in honour and affluence.
Among the philosophers^ Maximus obtained the most
eminent rank in the friendship of his royal disciple,
who communicated, with unreserved confidence, his
actions, his sentiments, and his religious designs,
during the anxious suspense of the civil war. As soon
as Julian had taken possession of the palace of Con-
stantinople, he despatched an honourable and pressing
invitation to Maximus ; who then resided at Sardes in
Lydia, with Chrysanthius, the associate of his art and
studies. The prudent and superstitious Chrysanthius
refused to undertake a journey which showed itself,
according to the rules of divination, with the most
threatening and malignant aspect : but his companion,
whose fanaticism was of a bolder cast, persisted in his
interrogations, till he had extorted from the gods a
seeming consent to his own wishes and those of the
emperor. The journey of Maximus through the cities
of Asia displayed the triumph of philosophic vanity ;
and the magistrates vied with each other in the honour-
able reception which they prepared for the friend of
their sovereign. Julian was pronouncing an oration
before the senate, when he was informed of the arrival
of Maximus. The emperor immediately interrupted
his discourse, advanced to meet him, and, after a
tender embrace, conducted him by the hand into the
midst of the assembly ; where he publicly acknow-
ledged the benefits which he had derived from the
instructions of the philosopher. Maximus, who soon
acquired the confidence, and influenced the councils^
of Julian, was insensibly corrupted by the temptations
of a court. His dress became more splendid, his de-
meanour more lofty, and he was exposed, under a suc-
ceeding reign, to a disgraceful inquiry into the means
608 THE DECLINE AND FALL
by which the disciple of Plato had accumulated, in the
short duration of his favour, a very scandalous pro-
portion of wealth. Of the other philosophers and
sophists, who were invited to the Imperial residence
by the choice of Julian or by the success of Maximus,
few were able to preserve their innocence or their
reputation.^ The liberal gifts of money, lands, and
houses, were insufficient to satiate their rapacious
avarice ; and the indignation of the people was justly
excited by the remembrance of their abject poverty
and disinterested professions. The penetration of
Julian could not always be deceived : but he was un-
willing to despise the characters of those men whose
talents deserved his esteem ; he desired to escape the
double reproach of imprudence and inconstancy ; and
he was apprehensive of degrading, in the eyes of the
profane, the honour of letters and of religion.
The favour of Julian was almost equally divided
between the Pagans, who had firmly adhered to the
worship of their ancestors, and the Christians, who
prudently embraced the religion of their sovereign.
The acquisition of new proselytes *^ gratified the
ruling passions of his soul, superstition and vanity ;
and he was heard to declare with the enthusiasm of a
missionary that, if he could render each individual
richer than Midas, and every city greater than
Babylon, he should not esteem himself the benefactor
of mankind, unless, at the same time, he could
reclaim his subjects from their impious revolt against
the immortal gods. A prince, who had studied
human nature, and who possessed the treasures of
28 Chrysanthius, who bad refused to quit Lydia, was created
high-priest of the province. His cautions and temperate use of
power secured him after the revolution ; and he lived in peace ;
while Maximus, Priscus, &c. were persecuted by the Christian
ministers.
27 Under the reign of Lewis XIV. his subjects of every rank
aspired to the glorious title of Convertisseur, expressive of their
zeal and success in making proselytes. The word and the idea
are growing obsolete in France ; may they never be introduced
into England!
OF THE ROiMAN EiMPIRE 609
the Roman empire, could adapt his argmnents, his
promises, and his rewards, to every order of Chris-
tians ; and the merit of a seasonable conversion was
allowed to supply the defects of a candidate, or even
to expiate the guilt of a criminal. As the army is the
most forcible engine of absolute power, Julian applied
himself, with peculiar diligence, to corrupt the re-
ligion of his troops, without whose hearty concur-
rence every measure must be dangerous and unsuc-
cessful ; and the natural temper of soldiers made
this conquest as easy as it was important. The
legions of Gaul devoted themselves to the faith, as
well as to the fortunes, of their victorious leader ;
and even before the death of Constantius, he had the
satisfaction of announcing to his friends that they
assisted with fervent devotion, and voracious appetite,
at the sacrifices, which were repeatedly offered in
his camp, of whole hecatombs of fat oxen. The
armies of the East, which had been trained under
the standard of the cross, and of Constantius, re-
quired a more artful and expensive mode of per-
suasion. On the days of solemn and public festivals,
the emperor received the homage, and rewarded the
merits, of the troops. His throne of state was
encircled with the military ensigns of Rome and the
republic ; the holy name of Christ was erased from
the Laharum ; and the symbols of war, of majesty,
and of pagan superstition, were so dexterously
blended, that the faithful subject incurred the guilt
of idolatry, when he respectfully saluted the person
or image of his sovereign. The soldiers passed
successively in review ; and each of them, before
he received from the hand of Julian a liberal
donative, proportioned to his rank and services, was
required to cast a few grains of incense into the flame
which burnt upon the altar. Some Christian con-
fessors might resist, and others might repent; but
the far greater number, allured by the prospect of
gold and awed by the presence of the emperor,
contracted the criminal engagement ; and their future
510 THE DECLINE AND FALL
perseverance in the worship of the gods was enforced
by every consideration of duty and of interest. By
the frequent repetition of these arts, and at the
expense of sums which would have purchased the
service of half the nations of Scythia, Julian gradu-
ally acquired for his troops the imaginary protection
of the gods, and for himself the firm and effectual
support of the Roman legions. It is indeed more
than probable that the restoration and encourage-
ment of Paganism revealed a multitude of pretended
Christians, who, from motives of temporal advantage,
had acquiesced in the religion of the former reign ;
and who afterwards returned, with the same flexibility
of conscience, to the faith which was professed by
the successors of Julian.
VV^hile the devout monarch incessantly laboured to
restore and propagate the religion of his ancestors,
he embraced the extraordinary design of rebuilding
the temple of Jerusalem. In a public epistle to the
nation or community of the Jews, dispersed through
the provinces, he pities their misfortunes, condemns
their oppressors, praises their constancy, declares him-
self their gracious protector, and expresses a pious
hope that, after his return from the Persian war, he
may be permitted to pay his grateful vows to the
Almighty in his holy city of Jerusalem. The blind
superstition and abject slavery of those unfortunate
exiles must excite the contempt of a philosophic
emperor ; but they deserved the friendship of Julian
by their implacable hatred of the Christian name.
The barren synagogue abhorred and envied the
fecundity of the rebellious church : the power of the
Jews was not equal to their malice ; but their gravest
rabbis approved the private murder of an apostate ; ^
and their seditious clamours had often awakened the
indolence of the pagan magistrates. Under the reign
of Constantine, the Jews became the subjects of their
28 The Misnah denounced death against those who aban-
doned the foundation. Constantine made a law to protect
Christian converts from Judaism.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 611
revolted children^ nor was it long before they experi-
enced the bitterness of domestic tyranny. The civil
immunities which had been granted, or confirmed,
by Severus were gradually repealed by the Christian
princes ; and a rash tumult excited by the Jews of
Palestine seemed to justify the lucrative modes of
oppression, which were invented by the bishops and
eunuchs of the court of Constantius. The Jewish
patriarch, who was still permitted to exercise a pre-
carious jurisdiction, held his residence at Tiberias ;
and the neighbouring cities of Palestine were filled
with the remains of a people who fondly adhered to
the promised land. But the edict of Hadrian was
renewed and enforced ; and they viewed from afar
the walls of the holy city, which were profaned in
their eyes by the triumph of the cross and the devotion
of the Christians.
In the midst of a rocky and barren country, the
walls of Jerusalem inclosed the two mountains of Sion
and Acra, within an oval figure of about three English
miles.^ Towards the south, the upper town and the
fortress of David were erected on the lofty ascent of
Mount Sion : on the north side, the buildings of the
lower town covered the spacious summit of Mount
Acra ; and a part of the hill, distinguished by the
name of Moriah and levelled by human industry, was
crowned with the stately temple of the Jewish nation.
After the final destruction of the temple, by the arms
of Titus and Hadrian, a ploughshare was drawn over
the consecrated ground, as a sign of perpetual inter-
diction. Sion was deserted ; and the vacant space
of the lower city was filled with the public and private
edifices of the xElian colony, which spread themselves
29 I have consulted a rare and curious treatise of M. d'Anville
(svir I'ancienne Jerusalem, Paris, 1747, p. 75). The circum-
ference of the ancient city (Euseb. Praeparat. Evangel. 1. ix. c.
36) was twenty-seven stadia, or 2550 toises. A plan taken on
the spot assigns no more than 1980 for the modern town. The
circuit is defined by natural land-marks which cannot be mis-
taken or removed.
612 THE DECLINE AND FALL
over the adjacent hill of Calvary. The holy places
were polluted with monuments of idolatry ; and, either
from design or accident, a chapel was dedicated to
Venus on the spot which had been sanctified by
the death and resurrection of Christ. Almost three
hundred years after those stupendous events, the
profane chapel of Venus was demolished by the order
of Constantine ; and the removal of the earth and
stones revealed the holy sepulchre to the eyes of
mankind. A magnificent church was erected on that
mystic ground, by the first Christian emperor ; and
the efi*ects of his pious munificence were extended to
every spot which had been consecrated by the footsteps
of patriarchs, of prophets, and of the Son of God.^
The passionate desire of contemplating the original
monuments of their redemption attracted to Jerusalem
a successive crowd of pilgrims, from the shores of the
Atlantic ocean and the most distant countries of the
East ; ^^ and their piety was authorised by the ex-
ample of the empress Helena, who appears to have
united the credulity of age with the warm feelings
of a recent conversion. Sages and heroes, who have
visited the memorable scenes of ancient wisdom or
glory, have confessed the inspiration of the genius of
the place ; and the Christian who knelt before the
holy sepulchre ascril)ed his lively faith and his fervent
devotion to the more immediate influence of the Divine
spirit. The zeal, perhaps the avarice, of the clergy
of Jerusalem cherished and multiplied these beneficial
visits. They fixed, by unquestionable tradition, the
scene of each memorable event. They exhibited the
instruments wliich had been used in the passion of
Christ ; the nails and the lance that had pierced his
»o The emperor likewise built churches at Bethlehem, the
Mount of Olives, and the oak of Marabre.
31 The Itinerary from Bourdeaux to Jerusalem was composed
in the year. 333, for the use of pilgrims ; among whom Jerom
(torn. i. p. 126) mentions the Britons and the Indians, The
causes of this superstitious fashion are discussed in the learned
and judicious preface of Wesseling (Itin. pp. 537-545)-
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 513
handsj his feet, and his side ; the crown of thorns that
was planted on his head, the pillar at which he was
scourged ; and, above all, they showed the cross on
which he suffered, and which was dug out of the earth
in the reign of those princes who inserted the symbol
of Christianity in the banners of the Roman legions.'^
Such miracles as seemed necessary to account for its
extraordinary preservation and seasonable discovery
were gradually propagated without opposition. The
custody of the true cross, which on Easter Sunday was
solemnly exposed to the people, was entrusted to the
bishop of Jerusalem ; and he alone might gratify the
curious devotion of the pilgrims, by the gift of small
pieces, which they enchased in gold or gems, and carried
away in triumph to their respective countries. But, as
this gainful branch of commerce must soon have been
annihilated, it was found convenient to suppose that
the marvellous wood possessed a secret power of vege-
tation ; and that its substance, though continually
diminished, still remained entire and unimpaired.^^ It
might perhaps have been expected that the influence
of the place, and the belief of a perpetual miracle,
should have produced some salutary effects on the
morals as well as on the faith of the people. Yet the
most respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have been
obliged to confess, not only that the streets of Jeru-
salem were filled with the incessant tumult of business
and pleasure, but that every species of vice, adultery,
32 Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 326, No. 42-50) and
Tillemont (M^m. Eccles. torn. \'ii. pp. 8-16) are the historians
and champions of the miraculous inventio?i of the cross, under
the reign of Constantine. Their oldest witnesses are Paulinus,
Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus, Ambrose, and perhaps Cyril of
Jerusalem. The silence of Eusebius and the Bourdeaux pil-
grim, which satisfies those who think, perplexes those who
believe.
33 This multiplication is asserted by Paulinus, who seems to
have improved a rhetorical flourish of Cyril into a real fact.
The same supernatural privilege must have been communicated
to the Virgin's milk, saints' heads, &c. and other relics, which
were repeated in so many different churches.
VOL. II. II
614 THE DECLINE AND FALL
theft, idolatry, poisoning, murder, was familiar to the
inhabitants of the holy city.^^ The wealth and pre-
eminence of the church of Jerusalem excited the ambi-
tion of Arian, as well as orthodox, candidates ; and the
virtues of Cyril, who, since his death, has been honoured
with the title of Saint, were displayed in the exercise,
rather than in the acquisition, of his episcopal die aity/^
The vain and ambitious mind of Julian might aspire
to restore the ancient glory of the temple of Jeru-
salem.*^^ As the Christians were firmly persuaded that
a sentence of everlasting destruction had been pro-
nounced against the whole fabric of the Mosaic law,
the imperial sophist would have converted the success
of his undertaking into a specious argument against
the faith of the prophecy and the truth of revelation.^''
He was displeased with the si)iritual Worship of the
synagogue ; but he approved the institutions of Moses,
who had not disdained to adopt many of the rites and
ceremonies of Egypt.^ The local and national deity
3* Gregor. Nyssen, apud Wesseling, p. 539. The whole
epistle, which condemns either the use or the abuse of religious
pilgrimage, is painful to the Catholic divines, while it is dear
and familiar to our Protestant polemics.
35 He renounced his orthodox ordination, officiated as a
deacon, and was reordained by the hands of the Arians. But
Cyril afterwards changed with the times, and prudently con-
formed to the Nic(.ne faith. T.llemont (Mdm. Eccl^s. torn,
viii.), who treats his memory with tenderness and respect, has
thrown his virtues into the text, and his faults into the notes, in
decent obscurity, at the end of the volume.
36 Imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operura gestiens
propagare. Ammian. xxiii. i. The temple of Jerusalem had
been famous even amonj; the Gentiles. They had many
temples in each city (at Sichem five, at Gaza eight, at Rome
four hundred and twenty-four) ; but the wealth and religion of
the Jewish nation was centered in one spot.
*^ The secret intentions of Julian are revealed by the late
bishop of Gloucester, the learned and dogmatic W'arburton ;
who, with the authority of a theologian, prescribes the motives
and conduct of the Supreme Being. The discourse entitled
Julian (2nd edition, London, 1751) is strongly marked with all
the peculiarities which are imputed to the Waiburtonian school.
3« I shelter myself behind Maimonides, Marsham, Spencer,
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 515
of the Jews was sincerely adored by a polytheist who
desired only to multiply the number of the gods ; ^
and such was the appetite of Julian for bloody sacrifice
that his emulation might be excited by the piety of
Solomon, who had offered, at the feast of the dedica-
tion, twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and
twenty thousand sheep.**^ These considerations might
influence his designs ; but the prospect of an immediate
and important advantage would not suffer the im-
patient monarch to expect the remote and uncertain
event of the Persian war. He resolved to erect, with-
out delay, on the commanding eminence of Moriah, a
stately temple which might eclipse the splendour of
the church of the Resurrection on the adjacent hill of
Calvary ; to establish an order of priests, whose inter-
ested zeal woulS detect the az'ts, and resist the ambi-
tion, of their Christian rivals ; and to invite a numerous
colony of Jews, whose stern fanaticism would be always
prepared to second, and even to anticipate, the hostile
measures of the pagan government. Among the friends
of the emperor (if the names of emperor and of friend
are not incompatible) the first place was assigned, by
Julian himself, to the virtuous and learned Alypius.
The humanity of Alypius was tempered by severe
justice and manly fortitude ; and, while he exercised
his abilities in the civil administration of Britain, he
imitated, in his poetical compositions, the harmony
and softness* of the odes of Sappho. This minister_, to
Le Clerc, Warburton, &c. who have fairly derided the fears,
the folly, and the falsehood of some superstitious divines.
39 Julian (Fragment, p. 295) respectfully styles him fxeyas
deds, and mentions him elsewhere (epist. Ixiii.) with still higher
reverence. He doubly condemns the Christians : for believing
and for renouncmg the religion of the Jews. Their Deity was
a true, but not the on/y, God.
40 I Kings viii. 63. 2 Chronicles vii. 5. Joseph. Antiquitat.
Judaic. 1. viii. c. 4, p. 431, edit. Havercamp. As the blood
and smoke of so many hecatombs might be inconvenient,
TJghtfoot, the Christian Rabbi, removes them by a miracle.
Le Clerc (ad loca) is bold enough to suspect the hdeliiy of
the numbers.
616 THE DECLINE AND FALL
whom Julian communicated, without reserve, his most
careless levities and his most serious counsels, received
an extraordinary commission to restore, in its pristine
beauty, the temple of Jerusalem ; and the diligence of
Alypius required and obtained the strenuous support
of the governor of Palestine. At the call of their
great deliverer, the Jews, from all the provinces of
the empire, assembled on the holy mountain of their
fathers ; and their insolent triumph alarmed and ex-
asperated the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem. The
desire of rebuilding the temple has, in every age,
been the ruling passion of the children of Israel. In
this propitious moment the men forgot their avarice,
and the women their delicacy ; spades and pickaxes
of silver were provided by the vanity of the rich, and
the rubbish was transported in mantles of silk and
purple. Every purse was opened in liberal contribu-
tions, every hand claimed a share in the pious labour ;
and the commands of a great monarch were executed
by the enthusiasm of a whole people.
Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power and
enthusiasm were unsuccessful ; and the ground of the
Jewish temple, which is now covered by a Mahometan
mosque,*^ still continued to exhibit the same edifying
spectacle of ruin and desolation. Perhaps the absence
and death of the emperor, and the new maxims of a
Christian reign, might explain the interruption of an
arduous work, which was attempted only in the last six
months of the life of Julian. ^^ But the Christians
entertained a natural and pious expectation that, in
this memorable contest, the honour of religion would
41 Built by Omar, the second Khalif, who died a.d. 644.
This great mosque covers the whole consecrated ground of the
Jewish temple, and constitues almost a square of 760 ioises, or
one Roman mile in circumference.
*2 Ammianus records the consuls of the year 363, before he
proceeds to mention the thoughts of Julian. Templura . . .
instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis. Warburton has a
secret wish to anticipate the design ; but he must have under-
stood, from former examples, that the execution of such a work
would have demanded many years.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 517
be vindicated by some signal miracle. An earthquake,
a whirlwind^ and a fiery eruption, whicli overturned
and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are
attested_, with some variations, by contemporary and
respectable evidence. This public event is described by
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in an epistle to the emperor
Theodosius, which must provoke the severe animadver-
sion of the Jews ; by the eloquent Chrysostom, who
might appeal to the memory of the elder part of his
congregation at Antioch ; and by Gregory Nazianzen,
who published his account of the miracle before the
expiration of the same year. The last of these writers
has boldly declared that this preternatural event was
not disputed by the infidels ; and his assertion, strange
as it may seem, is confirmed by the unexceptionable
testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus. The philosophic
soldier, who loved the virtues, without adopting the
prejudices, of his master, has recorded, in his judicious
and candid history of his own times, the extraordinary
obstacles which interrupted the restoration of the
temple of Jerusalem. '' Whilst Alypius, assisted by
the governor of the province, urged with vigour and
diligence the execution of the work, horrible balls of
fire breaking out near the foundations with frequent
and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time
to time, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted work-
men ; and, the victorious element continuing in this
manner obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to
drive them to a distance, the undertaking was aban-
doned." Such authority should satisfy a believing,
and must astonish an incredulous, mind. Yet a philo-
sopher may still require the original evidence of
impartial and intelligent spectators. At this important
crisis, any singular accident of nature would assume
the appearance, and produce the efi"ects, of a real
prodigy. This glorious deliverance would be speedily
improved and magnified by the pious art of the clergy
of Jerusalem and the active credulity of the Christian
world ; and, at the distance of twenty years, a Roman
historian, careless of theological disputes, might
618 THE DECLLNE AND FALL a.d.
adorn his work with the specious and splendid
miracle. ^^
The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly
connected with the ruin of the Christian church. Julian
still continued to maintain the freedom of religious
worship, without distinguishino^ whether this universal
toleration proceeded from his justice or his clemency.
He affected to pity the unhappy Christians, who were
mistaken in the most important object of their lives ;
but his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt
was embittered by hatred ; and the sentiments of Julian
were expressed in a style of sarcastic wit, which inflicts
a deep and deadly wound whenever it issues from the
mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible that the
Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer, he
countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the
less honourable appellation of Galileans. ^* He de-
clared that, by the folly of the Galilteans, whom he
describes as a sect of fanatics, contemj»tible to men,
and odious to the gods, the empire h;id been reduced
to tlie brink of destruction ; and lie insinuates in a
public edict that a frantic patient might sometimes
be cured by salutary violence. An ungenerous distinc-
tion was admitted into the mind and counsels of Julian,
that, according to the difference of their religious
sentiments, one part of his subjects deserved his favour
and friendship, while the other was entitled only to
the common benefits that his justice could not refuse
to an obedient people. According to a principle,
pregnant with mischief and oppression, the emperor
43 Dr. Lardner, perhaps alone of the Christian critics, pre-
sumes to doubt the truth of this famous miracle (Jewish and
Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. pp. 47-71). The silence of Jerom
would lead to a suspicion that the same story, which was
celebrated at a distance, might be despised on the spot.
•" Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 81. And this law was confirmed
by the invariable practice of Julian himself. Warburton has
justly observed (p. 35) that the Platonists believed in the
mysterious virtue of words ; and Julian's dislike for the name
of Christ might proceed from superstition, as well as from con-
tempt.
362 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 519
transferred to the pontiffs of his own religion the
management of the lil)eral allowances from the public
revenue which had been granted to the church ijy the
piety of Constantine and his sons. The proud system
of clerical honours and immunities, which had been
constructed with so much art and labour, was levelled
i:o the ground ; the hopes of testamentary donations
were intercepted by the rigour of the laws ; and the
priests of the Christian sect were confounded with the
last and most ignominious class of the people. Such
of these regulations as appeared necessary to check the
ambition and avarice of the ecclesiastics were soon
afterwards imitated by the wisdom of an orthodox
prince. The peculiar distinctions which policy has
bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on the sacer-
dotal order must be confined to those priests who
})rofess the religion of the state. But the will of the
legislator was not exempt from prejudice and passion ;
and it was the object of the insidious policy of Julian
to deprive the Christians of all the temporal honours
and advantages which rendered them respectable in
the eyes of the world.
A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the
law which prohibited the Christians from teaching
the arts of grammar and rhetoric. The motives
alleged by the emperor to justify this partial and
oppressive measure might command, during his life-
time, the silence of slaves and the applause of
flatterers. Julian abuses the ambiguous meaning of
a word which might be indifferently applied to the lan-
guaare and the religion of tlie Greeks : he contemptu-
ously observes that the men who exalt the merit of
implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy the
advantages of science ; and he vainly contends that,
if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and
Demost?ienes, they ought to content themselves with
expounding Luke and Matthew in the churches of
the Galilaeans.*^ In all the cities of the Roman
4* The edict itself, which is still extant among the epistles of
Julian (xlii.), may be compared with the loose invectives of
620 THE DECLINE AND FALL
world, the education of the youth was entrusted to
masters of grammar and rhetoric ; who were elected
by the magistrates, maintained at the public expense,
and distinguished by many lucrative and honourable
privileges. The edict of Julian appears to have
included the physicians, and professors of all the
liberal arts ; and the emperor, who reserved to him-
self the approbation of the candidates, was authorised
by the laws to corrupt, or to punish, the religious
constancy of the most learned of the Christians. As
soon as the resignation of the more obstinate teachers
had established the unrivalled dominion of the Pagan
sophists, Julian invited the rising generation to resort
with freedom to the public schools, in a just confi-
dence that their tender minds would receive the im-
pressions of literature and idolatry. If tlie greatest
part of the Christian youth should be deterred by
their own scruples, or by those of their parents,
from accepting this dangerous mode of instruction,
they must at the same time relinquish the benefits
of a liberal education. Julian had reason to expect
that, in the space of a few years, the church would
relapse into its primaeval simplicity, and that the
theologians, who possessed an adequate share of tlie
learning and eloquence of the age, would be succeeded
by a generation of blind and ignorant fanatics, in-
capable of defending the truth of their own principles
or of exposing the various follies of Polytheism.^**
It was undoubtedly the wish and the design of
Julian to deprive the Christians of the advantages of
wealth, of knowledge, and of power ; but the injustice
Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 96). Tillemont (Mdm. Eccl^s. t. vii, pp.
1291-1294) has collected the seeming differences of ancients and
moderns. They may be easily reconciled. The Christians
were directly forbid to teach, they were inditectly forbid to
learn ; since they would not frequent the schools of the Pagans.
^ They had recourse to the expedient of composing books
for their own schools. Within a few months Apollinaris pro-
duced his Christian imitations of Homer (a sacred history in
xxiv books), Pindar, Euripides, and Menander ; and Sozomen
is satisfied that they equalled, or excelled, the originals.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 621
of excluding them from all offices of trust and profit
seems to have been tlie result of his general policy
rather than the immediate consequence of any positive
law. Superior merit might deserve^ and obtain_, some
extraordinary exceptions ; but the greater part of the
Christian officers were gradually removed from their
employments in the state^ the army, and the provinces.
The hopes of future candidates were extinguished by
the declared partiality of a prince who maliciously
reminded them that it was unlawful for a Christian
to use the sword either of justice or of war ; and who
studiously guarded the camp and the tribunals with
the ensigns of idolatry. The powers of government
were entrusted to the Pagans^ who professed an ardent
zeal for the religion of their ancestors ; and, as the
choice of the emperor was often directed by the rules
of divination_, the favourites whom he preferred as
the most agreeable to the gods did not always obtain
the approbation of mankind. Under the administra-
tion of their enemies, the Christians had much to
suffer, and more to apprehend. The temper of Julian
was averse to cruelty ; and the care of his reputation,
which was exposed to the eyes of the universe, re-
strained the philosophic monarch from violating the
laws of justice and toleration which he himself had
so recently established. But the provincial ministers
of his authority were placed in a less conspicuous
station. In the exercise of arbitrary power, they
consulted the wishes, rather than the commands, of
their sovereign ; and ventured to exercise a secret
and vexatious tyranny against the sectaries, on whom
they were not permitted to confer the honours of
martyrdom. The emperor, who dissembled as long
as possible his knowledge of the injustice that was
exercised in his name, expressed his real sense of the
conduct of his officers by gentle reproofs and sub-
stantial rewards.
The most effectual instrument of oppression with
which they were armed was the law that obliged the
Christians to make full and ample satisfaction for the
VOL. II. R 2
622 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
temples which they had destroyed under the preceding'
reign. The zeal of the triumphant church had not
always expected the sanction of the public authority ;
and the bishops^ who were secure of impunity, had
often marched, at the head of their congregations,
to attack and demolish the fortresses of the prince
of darkness. The consecrated lands, which had in-
creased the j)atrimony of the sovereign or of the
clergy, were clearly defined, and easily restored. But
on these lands, and on the ruins of Pagan supersti-
tion, the Christians had frequently erected their own
religious edifices : and, as it was necessary to remove
the church before the temple could be rebuilt, the
justice and piety of the em})eror were applauded by
one party, while the other deplored and execrated his
sacrilegious violence. After the ground was cleared,
the restitution of those stately structures which had
been levelled with the dust and of the precious
ornaments which had been converted to Christian
uses swelled into a very large account of damages
and debt. The authors of the injury had neither
the ability nor the inclination to discharge this
accumulated demand : and the impartial wisdom of
a legislator would have been displayed in balancing
the adverse claims and complaints, by an equitable
and tem|»erate arbitration. But the whole empire,
and particularly the East, was thrown into confusion
by the rash edicts of Julian ; and the Pagan magis-
trates, inflamed by zeal and revenge, abused the
rigorous privilege of the Roman law, which substi-
tutes, in the place of his inadequate property, the
person of the insolvent debtor. Under the preceding
reign, Mark, bishop of Arethusa,^^ had laboured in
47 Restan, or Arethusa, at the equal distance of sixteen miles
between Emesa {Herns) and Epiphania [Hamath], was founded,
or at least named, by Seleucus Nicator. Its peculiar aera dates
from the year of Rome 685 according to the medals of the
city. In the decline of the Seleucides, Emesa and Arethusa
were usurped by the Arab Sampsiceramus, whose posterity, the
vassals of Rome, were not extinguished in the reign of Vespasian.
362 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 523
the conversion of his people with arms more effectual
than those of persuasion."** The magistrates required
the full value of a temple which had been destroyed
by his intolerant zeal : but, as they were satisfied of
his poverty, they desired only to bend his inflexible
spirit to the promise of the slightest compensation.
They apprehended the aged prelate, they inhumanly
scourged him, they tore his beard ; and his naked
body, anointed with honey, was suspended in a net
between heaven and earth, and exposed to the stingh
of insects and the rays of a Syrian sun. From this
lofty station, Mark still persisted to glory in his criiiie
and to insult the impotent rage of his persecutors.
He w-as at length rescued from their hands, and
dismissed to enjoy the honour of his divine triumph.
The Arians celebrated the virtue of their pious con-
fessor ; the Catholics ambitiously claimed his alliance ;
and the Pagans, who might be susceptible of shame
or remorse, were deterred from the repetition of such
unavailing cruelty. Julian spared his life : but, if
the bishop of Arethusa had saved the infancy of
Julian, posterity will condemn the ingratitude, in-
stead of praising the clemency, of the emperor.
At the distance of five miles from Antioch, the
Macedonian kings of Syria had consecrated to Apollo
one of the most elegant places of devotion in the Pagan
world. A magnificent temple rose in honour of the
god of light ; and his colossal figure almost filled the
capacious sanctuary, which was enriched with gold and
gems, and adorned by the skill of the Grecian artists.
The deity was represented in a bending attitude, with
a golden cup in his hand, pouring out a libation on
the earth ; as if he supplicated the venerable mother
to give to his arms the cold and beauteous Daphne :
for the spot was ennobled by fiction ; and the fancy of
the Syrian poets had transported the amorous tale
from the banks of the Peneus to those of the Orontes.
■^ It is surprising that Gregory and Theodoret should sup-
press a circumstance which, in their eyes, must have enhanced
the religious merit of the confessor.
624 THE DECLINE AND FALL
The ancient rites of Greece were imitated by the royal
colony of Antioch. A stream of prophecy, which
rivalled the truth and reputation of the Delphic oracle,
flowed from the Castalian fountain of Daphne.*^ In
the adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special
privilege,^ which had been purchased from Elis ; the
Olympic games were celebrated at the expense of the
city ; and a revenue of thirty thousand pounds sterling
was annually applied to the public pleasures.^^ The
perpetual resort of pilgrims and spectators insensibly
formed, in the neighbourhood of the temple, the stately
and populous village of Daphne, which emulated the
splendour, without acquiring the title, of a provincial
city. The temple and the village were deeply bosomed
in a thick grove of laurels and cypresses, which reached
as far as a circumference of ten miles, and formed in
the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade.
A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from
every hill, preserved the verdure of the earth and the
temperature of the air ; the senses were gratified with
harmonious sounds and aromatic odours ; and the
peaceful grove was consecrated to health and joy, to
luxury and love. The vigorous youth pursued, like
Apollo, the object of his desires ; and the blushing maid
was warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the folly
of unseasonable coyness. The soldier and the philo-
sopher wisely avoided the temptation of this sensual
*8 Hadrian read the history of his future fortunes on a leaf
dipped in the CastaHan stream ; a trick which, according to the
physician Vandale (De Oraculis, pp. 281, 282), might be easily
performed by chemical preparations. The emperor stopped
the source of such dangerous knowledge ; which was again
opened by the devout curiosity of Julian.
^0 It was purchased, A.D. 44, in the year 92 of the oera of
Antioch (Noris. Epoch. Syro-jllaced. pp. 139-174) for the term
of ninety Olympiads. But the Olympic games of Antioch were
not regularly celebrated till the reign of Commpdus.
51 Fifteen talents of gold, bequeathed by Sosibius, who died
in the reign of Augustus. The theatrical merits of the Syrian
cities, in the age of Constantine, are compared in the E-\positio
totius Mundi, p. 6.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 525
paradise ; where pleasure, assuming the character of
religion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness of manly
virtue. But the groves of Daphne continued for many
ages to enjoy the veneration of natives and strangers ;
the privileges of the holy ground were enlarged by
the munificence of succeeding emperors ; and every
generation added new ornaments to the splendour of
the temple.
When Julian, on the day of the annual festival,
hastened to adore the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion
was raised to the highest pitch of eagerness and
impatience. His lively imagination anticipated the
grateful pomp of victims, of libations, and of incense ;
a long procession of youths and virgins, clothed in
white robes, the symbol of their innocence ; and the
tumultuous concourse of an innumerable people. But
the zeal of Antioch was diverted, since the reign of
Christianity, into a difi'erent channel. Instead of heca-
tombs of fat oxen sacrificed by the tribes of a wealthy
city to their tutelar deity, the emperor complains that
he found only a single goose, provided at the expense
of a priest, the pale and solitary inhabitant of this
decayed temple.^^ The altar was deserted, the oracle
had been reduced to silence, and the holy ground was
profaned by the introduction of Christian and funereal
rites. After Babylas°^ (a bishop of Antioch, who
died in prison in the persecution of Decius) had rested
near a century in his grave, his body, by the order
of the Caesar Gallus, was transported into the midst
of the grove of Daphne. A magnificent church was
erected over his remains ; a portion of the sacred
lands was usurped for the maintenance of the clergy,
52 Julian (Misopogon, pp. 361, 362) discovers his own character
with that na'iveti, that unconscious simplicity, which always
constitutes genuine humour.
53 Babylas is named by Eusebius in the succession of the
bishops of Antioch (Hist. Eccles. 1. vi. c. 29, 39). His triumph
over two emperors (the first fabulous, the second historical) is
diffusely celebrated by Chrysostom (torn. ii. pp. 536-579, edit.
Montfaucon).
626 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
and for the burial of the Christians of Antioch who
were ambitious of lying at the feet of their bishop ;
and the priests of Apollo retired, with their affrighted
and indignant votaries. As soon as another revolution
seemed to restore the fortune of Paganism, the church
of St. Babylas was demolished, and new buildings
were added to the mouldering edifice which had been
raised by the piety of Syrian kings. But the first and
most serious care of Julian was to deliver his oppressed
deity from the odious presence of the dead and living
Christians who had so effectually suppressed the voice
of fraud or enthusiasm.^* The scene of infection was
purified, according to the forms of ancient rituals ; the
bodies were decently removed ; and the ministers of
the church were permitted to convey the remains of
St. Babylas to tlieir former habitation within the walls
of Antioch. The modest behaviour which might have
assuaged the jealousy of an hostile government was
neglected on this occasion by the zeal of the Christians.
The lofty car that transported the relics of Babylas
was followed, and accompanied, and received, by an
innumerable multitude ; who chanted, with thundering
acclamations, the Psalms of David the most expressive
of their contempt for idols and idolaters. The return
of the saint was a triumph ; and the triumph was an
insult on the religion of the emperor, who exerted his
pride to dissemble his resentment. During the night
which terminated this indiscreet y)rocession, the temple
of Daphne was in flames ; the statue of Apollo was
consumed ; and the walls of the edifice were left a
naked and awful monument of ruin. The Christians
of Antioch asserted, with religious confidence, that
the powerful intercession of St. Babylas had pointed
the lightnings of heaven against the devoted roof : but,
54 Ecclesiastical critics, particularly those who love relics,
exult in the confession of Julian (Misopogon, p. 361) and
Libanius (Nenia, p. 185), that Apollo was disturbed by the
vicinity of one dead man. Yet Ammianus (xxii. 12) clears and
purines the whole ground, according to the rites which the
Athenians formerly practised in the isle of Delos.
362 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 527
as Julian was reduced to the alternative of believing
eitlier a crime or a miracle, he chose, without hesita-
tion, without evidence, but with some colour of proba-
bility, to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of
the Galilaeans.^^ Their offence, had it been sufficiently
proved, might have justified the retaliation which was
immediately executed by the order of Julian, of shut-
ting the doors, and confiscating the wealth, of the
cathedral of Antioch. To discover the criminals who
were guilty of the tumult, of the fire, or of secreting
the riches of the church, several ecclesiastics were
tortured ; and a presbyter, of the name of Theodoret,
was beheaded by the sentence of the Count of the
East. But this hasty act was blamed by the emperor ;
who lamented, with real or aff"ected concern, that the
imprudent zeal of his ministers would tarnish his reign
with the disgrace of persecution.
The zeal of the ministers of Julian was instantly
checked by the frown of their sovereign ; but, when
the father of his country declares him.self the leader
of a faction, the licence of popular fury cannot easih
be restrained nor consistently punished. Julian, in a
public composition, applauds the devotion and loyalty
of the holy cities of Syria, whose pious inhabitant's
had destroyed, at the first signal, the sepulchres of
the Galilaeans ; and faintly complains that they had
revenged the injuries of the gods with less moderation
than he should have recommended. This imperfect
and reluctant confession may appear to confirm the
ecclesiastical narratives : that in the cities of Gaza,
Ascalon, Ctesarea, Heliopolis, &c. the Pagans abused,
without prudence or remorse, the moment of their
prosperity ; that the unhappy objects of their cruelty
were released from torture only by death ; that, as
their mangled bodies were dragged through the
streets, they were pierced (such was the universal
55 Julian (in Misopogon, p. 361) rather insinuates than aflBrms
their guilt. Ammianus (xxii. 13) treats the imputation as
Uvissimus rumor, and relates the story with extraordinary
candour.
628 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
rage) by the spits of cooks and the distaffs of enraged
women ; and that the entrails of Christian priests and
virgins, after they had been tasted by those bloody
fanatics, were mixed with barley, and contemptuously
thrown to the unclean animals of the city.^^ Such
scenes of religious madness exhibit the most con-
temptible and odious picture of human nature ; but
the massacre of Alexandria attracts still more atten-
tion, from tlie certainty of the fact, the rank of
the victims, and the splendour of the capital of
Egypt.
George,^'' from his parents or his education surnamed
the Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in
a fuller's shop. From this obscure and servile origin
he raised himself by the talents of a parasite : and the
patrons, whom he assiduously flattered, procured for
their worthless dependant a lucrative commission, or
contract, to supply the army with bacon. His em-
ployment was mean ; he rendered it infamous. He
accumulated wealth by the basest arts of fraud and
corruption ; but his malversations were so notorious
that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits
of justice. After this disgrace, in which he appears to
have saved his fortune at the expense of his honour, he
embraced^ with real or affected zeal, the profession of
Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation, of learn-
ing, he collected a valuable library of history, rhetoric,
56 See Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 87 [iv. c. 86].
Sozomen (1. v. c. 9) may be considered as an original, though
not impartial, witness. He was a native of Gaza, and had
conversed with the confessor Zeno, who, as bishop of Maiuma,
lived to the age of an hundred (1. vii. c. 28). Philostorgius (1.
vii. c. 4, with Godefroy's Dissertations, p. 284) adds some tragic
circumstances, of Christians who were literally sacrificed at the
altars of the gods, &c.
57 The life and death of George of Cappadocia are described
by Ammianus (xxii. 11), Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xxi. pp. 382,
385, 389, 390). and Epiphanius (Hasres. Ixxvi.). The invectives
of the two saints might not deserve much credit, unless they
were confirmed by the testimony of the cool and impartial
infidel.
861 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 629
philosophy, and theology ; °^ and the choice of the
prevailing faction promoted George of Cappadocia to
the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the new-
archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror ; and
each moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and
avarice. The Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were
abandoned to a tyrant^ qualified^ by nature and edu-
cation, to exercise the office of persecution ; but he
oppressed with an impartial hand the various inhabi-
tants of his extensive diocese. The primate of Egypt
assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty station ;
but he still betrayed the vices of his base and servile
extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were im-
poverished by the unjust, and almost universal,
monopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt, paper,
funerals, &c. ; and the spiritual father of a great
people condescended to practise the vile and pernicious
arts of an informer. The Alexandrians could never
forget nor forgive the tax which he suggested on all
the houses of the city ; under an obsolete claim that
the royal founder had conveyed to his successors, the
Ptolemies and the Csesars, the perpetual property of
the soil. The Pagans, who had been flattered with
the hopes of freedom and toleration, excited his devout
avarice ; and the rich temples of Alexandria were either
pillaged or insulted by the haughty prelate, who ex-
claimed, in a loud and threatening tone, ^'How long
will these sepulchres be permitted to stand f " Under
the reign of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury,
or rather by the justice, of the people ; and it was not
without a violent struggle that the civil and military
powers of the state could restore his authority and
58 After the massacre of George, the emperor Julian re-
peatedly sent orders to preserve the library for his own use, and
to torture the slaves who might be suspected of secreting any
books. He praises the merit of the collection, from whence
he had borrowed and transcribed several manuscripts while
he pursued his studies in Cappadocia. He could wish indeed
that the works of the Galilasans might perish : but he requires
an exact account even of those theological volumes, lest other
treatises more valuable should be confounded in their loss.
630 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
gratify his reveug-e. The messenger who proclaimed
at Alexandria the accession of Julian announced the
downfall of the archbishop. George^ with two of his
obsequious- ministers, count Diodorus, and Dracontius,
master of the mint, were ignominiously dragged in
chains to the public prison. At the end of twenty-
four days, the prison was forced open by the rage of a
superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms
of judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and
men expired under their cruel insults ; the lifeless
bodies of the archbishop and his associates were carried
in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel ;
and the inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed
a shining example of evangelican patience. The re-
mains of these guilty wretches were thrown into the
sea ; and the popular leaders of the tumult declared
their resolution to disappoint the devotion of the
Christians, and to intercept the future honours of
these martyrs, who had been punished, like their
predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. ^^ The
fears of the Pagans were just, and their precautions
ineffectual. The meritorious death of the archbishop
obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of
Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians, and
the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced
his worship into the bosom of the Catholic church.^'^
The odious stranger, disguising every circumstance of
time and place, assumed the mask of a martyr^ a
saint, and a Christian hero ; ^^ and the infamous George
69 Epiphanius proves to the Arians that George was not a
martyr.
60 Some Donatists and Priscillianists have in like manner
usurped the honours of Cathohc saints and martyrs.
61 The saints of Cappadocia, Basil and the Gregories, were
ignorant of their holy companion. Pope Gelasius (A.D. 494),
the first Catholic who acknowledges St. George, places him
among the martyrs, "qui Deo magis quam hominibus noti
sunt." He rejects his Acts as the composition of heretics.
Some, perhaps not the oldest, of the spurious Acts are still
extant ; and, through a cloud of fiction, we may yet distinguish
the combat which St. George of Cappadocia sustained, in
861 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 631
of Cappadocia has been transformed ^^ into tj^g j.^.
nowned St. Georg-e of Eng']and_, the patron of arms,
of chivalry, and of the garter. ^^
About the same time that Julian was informed of
the tumult of Alexandria, he received iutellig-ence
from Edessa that the proud and wealthy faction of
the Arians had insulted the weakness of the Valen-
tinians, and committed such disorders as ought not
to be suffered with impunity in a well-regulated state.
Without expecting the slow forms of justice, the
exasperated prince directed his mandate to the magis-
trates of Edessa, by which he confiscated the whole
property of the church : the money was distributed
among the soldiers ; the lands were added to the
domain ; and this act of oppression was aggravated
by the most ungenerous irony. " I show myself,"
sa\'s Julian, "the true friend of the Galilaeans. Their
admirable law has promised the kingdom of heaven to
the poor ; and they will advance with more diligence
in the paths of virtue and salvation, when they are
relieved by my assistance from the load of temporal
possessions. Take care," pursued the monarch, in a
more serious tone, '' take care how you provoke my
patience and humanity. If these disorders continue,
I will revenge on the magistrates the crimes of the
people ; and you will have reason to dread, not only
confiscation and exile, but fire and the sword," The
tumults of Alexandria were doubtless of a more
bloody and dangerous nature : bat a Christian bishop
the presence of Queen Alexandra, against the ruagician
Athanasius.
62 This transformation is not given as absolutely certain, but
as extremely probable.
^ A curious history of the worship of St. George, from the
sixth century (when he was already revered in Palestine, in
Armenia, at Rome, and at Treves in Gaul), might be extracted
from Dr. Heylin (History of St. George, 2nd edition, London,
1633, in 4to, pp. 429), and the Bollandists (Act. SS. Mens.
April, torn. iii. pp. 100-163). His fame and popularity in
Europe, and especially in England, proceeded from the
Crusades.
632 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
had fallen by the hands of the Pagans ; and the
public epistle of Julian affords a very lively proof
of the partial spirit of his administration. His
reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria are mingled
with expressions of esteem and tenderness ; and he
laments that on this occasion they should have
departed from the gentle and generous manners
which attested their Grecian extraction. He gravely
censures the offence which they had committed against
the laws of justice and humanity ; but he recapitu-
lates, with visible complacency, the intolerable pro-
vocations which they had so long endured from the
impious tyranny of George of Cappadocia. Julian
admits the principle that a wise and vigorous govern-
ment should chastise the insolence of the people :
yet, in consideration of their founder Alexander and
of Serapis their tutelar deity, he grants a free and
gracious pardon to the guilty city, for which he again
feels the affection of a brother.
After the tumult of Alexandria had subsided,
Athanasius, amidst the public acclamations, seated
himself on the throne from whence his unworthy
competitor had been precipitated ; and, as the zeal
of the archbishop was tempered with discretion, the
exercise of his authority tended not to inflame, but
to reconcile, the minds of ^the people. His pastoral
labours were not confined to the narrow limits of
Egypt. The state of the Christian world was present
to his active and capacious mind ; and the age, the
merit, the reputation of Athanasius enabled him to
assume, in a moment of danger, the office of Ecclesi-
astical Dictator. Three years were not yet elapsed
since the majority of the bishops of the AV^est had
ignorantly, or reluctantly, subscribed the Confession
of Rimini. They repented, they believed, but they
dreaded the unseasonable rigour of their orthodox
brethren, and, if their pride was stronger than their
faith, they might throw themselves into the arms of
the Arians, to escape the indignity of a public penance,
which must degrade them to the condition of obscure
362 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 533
laymen. At the same time, the domestic differences
concerning the union and distinction of the divine
persons were agitated with some heat among the
Catholic doctors ; and the progress of this meta-
physical controversy seemed to threaten a public
and lasting division of the Greek and Latin churches.
By the wisdom of a select synod, to which the name
and presence of Athanasius gave the authority of a
general council, the bishops who had unwarily deviated
into error were admitted to the communion of the
church, on the easy condition of subscribing the
Nicene Creed ; without any formal acknowledgment
of their past fault or any minute definition of their
scholastic opinions. The advice of the primate of
Egypt had already prepared the clergy of Gaul and
Spain, of Italy and Greece, for the reception of this
salutary measure ; and, notwithstanding the opposi-
tion of some ardent spirits,^'* the fear of the common
enemy promoted the peace and harmony of the
Christians.
The skill and diligence of the primate of Egypt had
improved the season of tranquillity, before it was inter-
rupted by the hostile edicts of the emperor. Julian,
who despised the Christians, honoured Athanasius with
his sincere and peculiar hatred. For his sake alone,
he introduced an arbitrary distinction, repugnant, at
least, to the spirit of his former declarations. He
maintained that the Galilaeans whom he had recalled
from exile were not restored, by that general in-
dulgence, to the possession of their respective churches :
and he expressed his astonishment that a criminal, who
had been repeatedly condemned by the judgment of
the emperors, should dare to insult the majesty of the
laws, and insolently usurp the archiepiscopal throne
of Alexandria, without expecting the orders of his
M I have not leisure tc follow the blind obstinacy of Lucifer
of Cagliari. See his adventures in Tillemont (M^m. Eccl^s.
torn. vii. pp. 900-916) ; and observe how the colour of the
narrative insensibly changes, as the confessor becomes a
schismatic.
634 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
sovereig"a. Asa punishment for the imaginary offence,
he again banished Athanasius from the city : and he
was pleased to suppose that this act of justice wouhi
be highly agreeable to his pious subjects. The pressing
solicitations of the people soon convinced him that
the majority of the Alexandrians were Christians ; and
that the greatest part of the Christians were firmly
attached to the cause of their oppressed primate. But
the knowledge of their sentiments_, instead of persuad-
ing him to recall his decree, provoked him to extend
to all Egypt the term of the exile of Athanasius. The
zeal of tlie multitude rendered Julian still more inex-
orable : he was alarmed by the danger of leaving at
the head of a tumultuous city a daring and popular
leader : and the language of his resentment discovers
the opinion which he entertained of the courage and
abilities of Athanasius. The execution of the sentence
was still delayed, by the caution or negligence of
Ecdicius, prefect of Egypt, who was at lengtli
awakened from his lethargy by a severe reprimand.
'^Though you neglect," says Julian, ^^to write to me
on any other subject, at least it is your duty to inform
me of your conduct towards Athanasius, the enemy of
the gods. My intentions have been long since com-
municated to you. I swear by the great Serapis that
unless, on the calends of December, Athanasius has
departed from Alexandria, nay from Egypt, the officers
of your government shall pay a fine of one hundred
pounds of gold. You know my temper : I am slow
to condemn, but I am still slower to forgive." This
epistle was enforced by a short postscript, written with
the emperor's own hand. '^The contempt that is
shown for all the gods fills me with grief and indigna-
tion. There is nothing that I should see, nothing that
1 should hear with more pleasure than the expulsion
of Athanasius from all Egypt. The abominable wretch !
Under my reign, the l)aptism of several Grecian ladies
of the highest rank has been the effect of his perse-
cutions." The death of Athanasius was not expressbf
commanded ; but the pra?fect of Egypt understood
362 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 536
that it was safer for him to exceed, than to ueglect,
the orders of an irritated master. The archbishop
prudently retired to the monasteries of the Desert :
eluded, with his usual dexterity, the snares of the
enemy ; and lived to triumph over the ashes of a
prince who, in words of formidable import, had de-
clared his wish that the whole venom of the Galilaean
school were contained in the single person of Atha-
nasius.''^
I have endeavoured faithfully to represent the
artful system by which Julian proposed to obtain the
effects, without incurring the guilt, or reproach, of
persecution. But, if the deadly spirit of fanaticism
perverted the heart and understanding of a virtuous
prince, it must, at the same time, be confessed, that
the real sufferings of the Christians v,ere inflamed and
magnified by human passions and religious enthusiasm.
The meekness and resignation which had distinguished
the primitive disciples of the gospel was the object of
the applause rather than of the imitation of their suc-
cessors. The Christians, who had now possessed about
forty years the civil and ecclesiastical government of the
empire, had contracted the insolent vices of prosperity,
and the habit of believing that the saints alone were
entitled to reign over the earth. As soon as the enmity
of Julian deprived the clergy of the privileges which
had been conferred by the favour of Constantine, they
complained of the most cruel oppression ; and the free
toleration of idolaters and heretics was a subject of
grief and scandal to the orthodox party. The acts of
violence, which were no longer countenanced by the
magistrates, were still committed by the zeal of the
people. At Pessinus, the altar of Cybele was over-
turned almost in the presence of the emperor ; and
in the city of Csesarea in Cappadocia, the temple of
Fortune, the sole place of worship which had been left
to the Pagans, was destroyed by the rage of a popular
63 The three epistles of Julian which explain his intentions
and conduct with regard to Athanasius should be disposed in
the following chronological order, xxvi, x, vi.
636 THE DECLINE AND FALL
tumult. On these occasions, a prince who felt for the
honour of the gods was not disposed to interrupt the
course of justice ; and his mind was still more deeply
exasperated, when he found that the fanatics, who had
deserved and suffered the punishment of incendiaries,
were rewarded with the honours of martyrdom. The
Christian subjects of Julian were assured of the hostile
designs of their sovereign ; and, to their jealous appre-
hension, every circumstance of his government might
afford some grounds of discontent and suspicion. In
the ordinary administration of the laws, the Christians,
who formed so large a part of the people, must fre-
quently he condemned : but their indii\?ent brethren,
without examining tlie merits of the cause, presumed
their innocence, allowed their claims, and imputed the
severity of their judge to the partial malice of religious
persecution.^ These present hardships, intolerable as
they might appear, were represented as a slight pre-
lude of the impending calamities. The Christians
considered Julian as a cruel and crafty tyrant who
suspended the execution of his revenge, till he should
return victorious from the Persian war. They expected
that, as soon as he had triumphed over the foreign
enemies of Rome, he would lay aside the irksome mask
of dissimulation ; that the amphitheatres would stream
with the blood of hermits and bishops ; and that the
Christians, who still persevered in the profession of
the faith, would be deprived of the common benefits of
nature and society.^" Every calumny that could wound
the reputation of the Apostate was credulously em-
braced by the fears and hatred of his adversaries ; and
their indisrreet clamours provoked the temper of a
sovereign wuom it was their duty to respect and their
w Julian determined a lawsuit against the new Christian
city at Maiuma, the port of Gaza ; and his sentence, though
it might be imputed to bigotry, was never reversed by his
successors. Sozomen, 1. v. c. 3. Reland, Palestine, torn, ii.
p. 791-
87 Gregory pretends to speak from the information of Julian's
confidants, whom Orosius could not have seen.
OF THE ROMAN EiMPIRE 637
interest to flatter. They still protested that prayers
aud tears were their only weapons against the impious
tyrant, whose head they devoted to the justice of
offended Heaven. But they insinuated with sullen
resolution, that their submission was no longer the
effect of weakness ; and that, in the imperfect state
of human virtue, the patience which is founded on
principle may be exhausted by persecution. It is im-
possible to determine how far the zeal of Julian would
have prevailed over his good sense and humanity : but,
if we seriously reflect on the strength and spirit of the
church, we shall be convinced that, before the emperor
could have extinguished the religion of Christ, he must
have involved his country in the horrors of a civil
^ The resignation of Gregory is truly edifying (Orat. iv. pp.
123, 124). Yet, when an officer of Julian attempted to seize
the Church of Nazianzus, he would have lost his life, if he had
not yielded to the zeal of the bishop and people (Orat. xix.
P- 308).
638 THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAPTER XXIV
aESIDENCE OF JULIAX AT AN'TIOCH — HIS SUCCESSFUL EX-
PEDITION AGAIXST THE PERSIANS PASSAGE OP THE
TIGRIS THE RETREAT AND DEATH OF JULIAN —
ELECTION OF JOVIAN — HE SAVES THE ROMAN ARMY
BY A DISGRACEFUL TREATY
The philosophical fable which Julian composed under
the name of the ( jesars is one of the most aereeable
and instructive productions of ancient wit.^ During
the freedom and equality of the days of the Saturnalia,
Romulus prepared a feast for the deities of Olympus,
who had adopted him as a worthy associate, and for
the Roman princes, who had reicned over his martial
people and the vanquished nations of the earth. The
immortals were plared in just order on their thrones
of state, and the table of the Csesars was spread below
the Moon, in the upper re2:ion of the air. Tlie tyrants,
who would have diss;-raced the society of ^ods and men,
were thrown headlong, by the inexorable Nemesis,
into the Tartarean abyss. The rest of the Csesars suc-
cessively advanced to their seats : and, as they passed,
the vices, the defects, the blemishes of their respective
characters were maliciously noticed by old Silenus, a
laughing moralist, who disguised the wisdom of a
philosopher under the mask of a Bacchanal. ^ As soon
1 Spanheim (in his preface) has most learnedly discussed the
etymology, origin, resemblance, and disagreement of the Greek
satyrs, a dramatic piece, which was acted after the tragedy ; and
the Latin satires (from safura), a miscellaneous composition,
either in prose or verse. But the Caesars of Julian are of such
an original cast that the critic is perplexed to which class he
should ascribe ihem.
2 This mixed character of Silenus is finely painted in the sixth
eclogue of Vireil.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 589
a«: the feast was ended, the voice of Mercury pro-
claimed the will of Jupiter, that a celestial crown
should be the reward of superior merit. Julius Caesar,
Au^stus Trajan, and Marcus Antoninus were selected
as the most illustrious candidates ; the effeminate Con-
stantine^ was not excluded from this honourable
competition, and the great Alexander was invited to
dispute the prize of glory with the Roman heroes.
Each of the candidates was allowed to display the merit
of hi? own exploits ; but, in the judgment of the gods,
the modest silence of Marcus pleaded more powerfully
than the elaborate orations of his haughty rivals.
^^^hen the judges of this awful contest proceeded to
examine the heart and to scrutinise the springs of
action, the superiority of the Imperial Stoic appeared
still more decisive and conspicuous.* Alexander and
Ccesar, Augustus, Trajan, and Constantiue, acknow-
ledged with a blush that fame or power or pleasure
had been the important object of their labours : but
the gods themselves beheld, with reverence and love,
a virtuous mortal, who had practised on the throne
the lessons of philosophy ; and who, in a state of
human imperfection, had aspired to imitate the moral
attributes of the Deity. Tlie value of this agreeable
composition (the Caesars of Julian) is enhanced by the
rank of the author. A prince, who delineates with
freedom the vices and virtues of his predecessors, sub-
scribes, in every line, the censure or approbation of
his own conduct.
In the cool moments of reflection, Julian preferred
the useful and benevolent virtues of Antoninus : but
his ambitious spirit was inflamed by the glory of
3 Every impartial reader mi:ist perceive and condemn the
partiality of Julian against his uncle Constantine and the Chris-
tian religion. On this occasion, the interpreters are compelled,
by a more sacred interest, to renounce their allegiance, and to
desert the cause of their author.
4 Julian was secretly inclined to prefer a Greek to a Roman,
But, when he seriously compared a hero with a philosopher, he
v.-as sensible that mankind had much greater obligations to
Socrates than to Alexander (Orat. ad Themistium, p. 264).
540 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
Alexander ; and he solicited, with equal ardour, the
esteem of the wise and the applause of the multitude.
In the season of life, when the powers of the mind and
body enjoy the most active vigour, the emperor, who
was instructed by the experience, and animated by the
success, of the German war, resolved to signalise his
reign by some more splendid and memorable achieve-
ment. The ambassadors of the East, from the continent
of India and the isle of Ceylon,^ had respectfully
saluted the Roman purple.^ The nations of the West
esteemed and dreaded the personal virtues of Julian,
both in peace and \t-ar. He despised the trophies of a
Gothic victory and was satisfied that the rapacious
Barbarians of the Danube would be restrained from
any future violation of the faith of treaties by the terror
of his name and the additional fortifications with which
he strengthened the Thracian and Illj'rian frontiers.
The successor of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only
rival whom he deemed worthy of his arms ; and he
resolved, by the final conquest of Persia, to chastise
the haughty nation which had so long resisted and
insulted the majesty of Rome.^ As soon as the Persian
5 Inde nationibus Indicis certatum cum donis optimates
miltentibus . . . ab usque Divis et Serendivis. Ammian. xxii. 7,
This island to which the names of Taprobana, Serendib, and
Ceylon, have been successively applied manifests how imper-
fectly the seas and lands to the east of Cape Comorin were
known to the Romans, i. Under the reign of Claudius, a
freedman, who farmed the customs of the Red Sea, was acci-
dentally driven by the winds upon this strange and undiscovered
coast : he conversed six months with the natives ; and the king
of Ceylon, who heard, for the first time, of the power and justice
of Rome, was persuaded to send an embassy to the emperor
(Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 24). 2. The geographers (and even Ptolemy)
have magnified, above fifteen times, the real size of this new
world, which they extended as far as the equator and the neigh-
bourhood of China.
6 These embassies had been sent to Constantius. Ammianus,
who unwarily deviates into gro?s flattery, must have forgotten
the length of the way, and the short duration of the reign of
Julian.
' Alexander reminds his rival Caesar, who deprecated the
fame and merit of an Asiatic victory, that Crassus and Antony
362 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 641
monarch was informed that the throne of Constantius
was filled by a prince of a very different character, he
condescended to make some artful, or perhaps sincere,
overtures towards a neg^otiation of peace. But the
pride of Sapor was astonished by the firmness of Julian ;
who sternly declared that he would never consent to
hold a peaceful conference among the flames and ruins
of the cities of Mesopotamia; and who added, v*'ith a
smile of contempt, that it was needless to treat by
ambassadors, as he himself had determined to visit
speedily the court of Persia. The impatience of the
emperor urged the diligence of the military prepara-
tions. The generals were named ; a formidable army
was destined for this important service ; and Julian,
marching from Constantinople through the provinces
of Asia Minor, arrived at Antioch about eight months
after the death of his predecessor. His ardent desire
to march into the heart of Persia was checked by the
indispensable duty of regulating the state of the
empire ; by his zeal to revive the worship of the gods ;
and by the advice of his wisest friends, who represented
the necessity of allowing the salutary interval of winter
quarters, to restore the exhausted strength of the
legions of Gaul and the discipline and the spirit of the
Eastern troops. Julian was persuaded to fix, till the
ensuing spring, his residence at Antioch, among a
people maliciously disposed to deride the haste, and to
censure the delays, of their sovereign.
If Julian had flattered himself that his personal
connection with the capital of the East would be pro-
ductive of mutual satisfaction to the prince and people,
he made a very false estimate of his own character, and
of the manners of Antioch. ^^ The warmth of the
climate disposed the natives to the most intemperate
enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence ; and the lively
had felt the Persian arrows ; and that the Romans, in a war of
three hundred years, had not yet subdued the single province
of Mesopotamia or Assyria (Caesares, p. 324).
8 The satire of Julian and the Homilies of St. Chrysostom
exhibit the same picture of Antioch.
642 THE DECLINE AND FALL
licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with the
hereditary softness of the Syrians. Fashion was the
only law, pleasure the only pursuit, and the splendour
of dress and furniture was the only distinction of the
citizens of Antioch. The arts of luxury w^ere honoured ;
the serious and manly virtues were the subject of ridi-
cule ; and the contempt for female modesty and re-
verent age announced the universal corruption of the
capital of the East. The love of spectacles was the
taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians : the most
skilful artists were procured from the adjacent cities ; ^
a considerable share of the revenue was devoted to the
public amusements ; and the magnificence of the games
of the theatre and circus was considered as the happi-
ness, and as the glory, of Antioch. The rustic manners
of a prince who disdained such glory, and was insensible
of such happiness, soon disgusted the delicacy of his
subjects ; and the effeminate Orientals could neither
imitate nor admire the severe simplicity which Julian
always maintained and sometimes affected. The days
of festivity, consecrated by ancient custom to the
honour of the gods, were the only occasions in which
Julian relaxed his philosophic severity ; and those
festivals were the only days in which the Syrians of
Antioch could reject the allurements of pleasure. Tiie
majority of the people supported the glory of the Chris-
tian name, which had been first invented by their
ancestors ; ^° ihey contented themselves with disobeying
the moral precepts, but they were scrupulously attached
to the speculative doctrines, of their religion. The
church of Antioch was distracted by heresy and schism ;
but the Ariaus and the Athanasians, the followers of
9 Laodicea furnished charioteers ; Tyre and Berytus, co-
medians ; Caesarea, pantomimes ; Heliopolis, singers ; Gaza,
gladiators; Ascalon, wrestlers; and Castabala, rope-dancers
See the Expositio toiius Mundi, p. 6, in the third tome of
Hudson's Minor Geographers.
^^ "Kfnarbv oi dyairuiPTes, ?X^^^ ttoXlovxoi' avri tov At6j. 1 he
people of Antioch ingeniously professed their attachment lo the
Chi (Christ), and the Kappa (Constantius). Julian, in Miso
pogon. p. 337.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 543
Meletius and those of PaulinuSj^ were actuated by the
same pious hatred of their common adversary.
The strongest prejudice was entertained against the
character of an apostate, the enemy and successor of
a prince who had engaged the affections of a very
numerous sect ; and the removal of St. Babylas excited
an implacable opposition to the person of Julian. His
subjects complained, with superstitious indignation,
that famine had pursued the emperor's steps from
Constantinople to Antioch ; and the discontent of a
hungry people was exasperated by the injudicious
attempt to relieve their distress. The inclemency of
the season had affected the harvests of Syria ; and
the price of bread/- in the markets of Antioch, had
naturally risen in proportion to the scarcity of corn.
But the fair and reasonable proportion was soon
violated by the rapacious arts of monopoly. In this
unequal contest, in which the produce of the land is
claimed by one party as his exclusive property ; is
used by another as a lucrative object of trade ; and
is required by a third for the daily and necessary
support of life ; all the prolits of the intermediate
agents are accumulated on the head of the defenceless
consumers. The hardships of their situation were
exaggerated and increased by their own impatience
and anxiety ; and the apprehension of a scarcity
gradually produced the appearances of a famine.
When the luxurious citizens of Antioch complained
11 The schism of Antioch, which lasted eighty-five years
(a.d. 330-4151, was inflamed, while Julian resided in that city,
by the indiscreet ordination of Paulinus. See TiUemont, M6m.
Eccl6s. torn. vii. p. 803, of the quarto edition (Paris, 1701, &c.),
which henceforward I shall quote.
i''^ Julian states three different proportions of five, ten, or
fifteen modii of wheat, for one piece of gold, according to the
degrees of plenty and scarcuy (in Misopogon. p. 369). From
this fact, and from some collateral examples, I conclude that
under the successors of Constantine the moderate price of wheat
was about thirty-two shillings the EngUsh quarter, which is
equal to the average price of the sixty-four tirst )ears of toe
present century.
544 THE DECLINE AND FALL
of the high price of poultry and fish, Julian publicly
declared that a frugal city ought to be satisfied with
a regular supply of wine, oil, and bread ; but he
acknowledged that it was the duty of a sovereign
to provide for the subsistence of his people. With
this salutary view, the emperor ventured on a very
dangerous and doubtful step, of fixing, by legal autho-
rity, the value of corn. He enacted that, in a time
of scarcity, it should be sold at a price which had
seldom been known in the most plentiful years ; and,
that his own example might strengthen his laws, he
sent into the market four hundred and twenty-two
thousand modii, or measures, which were drawn by
his order from the granaries of Hierapolis, of Chalcis,
and even of Egypt. The consequences might have
been foreseen, and were soon felt. The Imperial
wheat was purchased by the rich merchants ; the
proprietors of land, or of corn, withheld from the
city the accustomed supply ; and the small quantities
that appeared in the market wene secretly sold at an
advanced and illegal price. Julian still continued to
applaud his own policy, treated the complaints of the
people as a vain and ungrateful murmur, and con-
vinced Antioch that he had inherited the obstinacy,
though not the cruelty, of his brother Gallus. The
remonstrances of the municipal senate served only
to exasperate his inflexible mind. He was persuaded,
perhaps with truth, that the senators of Antioch who
possessed lands, or were concerned in trade, had them-
selves contributed to the calamities of their country ;
and he imputed the disrespectful boldness which they
assumed to the sense, not of public duty, but of
private interest. The whole body, consisting of two
hundred of the most noble and wealthy citizens, were
sent under a guard from the palace to the prison ;
and, though they were permitted, before the close
of evening, to return to their respective houses, the
emperor himself could not obtain the forgiveness
which he had so easily granted. The same grievances
were still the subject of the same complaints, which
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 545
were industriously circulated by the wit and levity
of the Syrian Greeks. During the licentious days
of the Saturnalia^ the streets of the city resounded
with insolent songs, which derided the laws^ the re-
ligion^ the personal conduct^ and even the beard, of
the emperor ; and the spirit of Antioch was mani-
fested by the connivance of the magistrates and the
applause of the multitude.^^ The disciple of Socrates
was too deeply affected by these popular insults ;
but the monarch, endowed with quick sensibility^ and
possessed of absolute power^ refused his passions the
gratification of revenge. A tyrant might have pro-
scribed, without distinction, the lives and fortunes
of the citizens of Antioch ; and the unwarlike Syrians
must have patiently submitted to the lust, the rapa-
ciousness, and the cruelty of the faithful legions of
Gaul. A milder sentence might have deprived the
capital of the East of its honours and privileges ; and
the courtiers, perhaps the subjects, of Julian would
have applauded an act of justice which asserted the
dignity of the supreme magistrate of the republic. ^^
But, instead of abusing, or exerting, the authority
of the state to revenge his personal injuries, Julian
contented himself with an inoffensive mode of retalia-
tion, which it would be in the power of few princes
to employ. He had been insulted by satires and libels;
in his turn he composed, under the title of the Enemy
of the Beard, an ironical confession of his own faults,
and a severe satire of the licentious and effeminate
manners of Antioch. This Imperial reply was publicly
exposed before the gates of the palace ; and the
MisopoGON still remains a singular monument of the
resentment, the wit, the humanity, and the indiscre-
^3 Libanius (ad Antiochenos de Imperatoris iri, c. 17, 18, 19,
in Fabricius Bibliot. Graec. torn. vii. pp. 221-223), I'^e a skilful
advocate, severely censures the folly of the people, who suffered
for the crime of a few obscure and drunken wretches.
1^ Libanius (ad Antiochen. c. vii. p. 213) reminds Antioch of
the recent chastisement of Caesarea : and even Julian (in Miso-
pogon. p. 35s) insinuates how severely Tarentum had expiated
the insult to the Roman ambassadors.
VOL. II. S
546 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
tion, of Julian. Thoug-h he affected to laugh, he
could not forgive. ^° His contempt was expressed^
and his revenge might be gratitied, by the nomination
of a governor worthy only of such subjects : and the
emperor, for ever renouncing the ungrateful city,
proclaimed his resolution to pass the ensuing winter
at Tarsus in Cilicia.
Yet Antioch possessed one citizen, whose genius
and virtues might atone, in the opinion of Julian,
for the vice and folly of his country. The sophist
Libanius was born in the capital of the East ; he
publicly professed the arts of rhetoric and declama-
tion at Nice, Nicomedia, Constantinople, Athens, and,
during the remainder of his life, at Antioch. His
school was assiduously frequented by the Grecian
youth ; his disciples, who sometimes exceeded the
number of eighty, celebrated their incomparable
master ; and the jealousy of his rivals, who persecuted
him from one city to another, confirmed the favour-
able opinion which Libanius ostentatiously displayed
of his superior merit. The preceptors of Julian had
extorted a rash but solemn assurance that he would
never attend the lectures of their adversary : the
curiosity of the royal youth was checked and inflamed :
he secretly procured the writings of this dangerous
sophist, and gradually surpassed, in the perfect
imitation of his style, the most laborious of his
domestic pupils. When Julian ascended the throne,
he declared his impatience to embrace and reward
the Syrian sophist, who had preserved, in a degenerate
age, the Grecian purity of taste, of manners and of
religion. The emperor's prepossession was increased
and justified by the discreet pride of his favourite.
Instead of pressing, with the foremost of the crowd,
into the palace of Constantinople, Libanius calmly
expected his arrival at Antioch ; withdrew from court
on the first symptoms of coldness and indifference ;
15 Ammianus very justly remarks, Coactus dissimulare pro
tempore ira sufflabatur interna. The elaborate irony of Julian
at length bursts forth into serious and direct invective.
363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 647
required a foi-mal invitation for each visit ; and taught
his sovereign an important lesson, that he might
command the obedience of a subject, but that he
must deserve the attachment of a friend. The
sophists of every age, despising, or affecting to
despise, the accidental distinctions of birth and
fortune, ^^ reserve their esteem for the superior
qualities of the mind, with which they themselves
are so plentifully endowed, Julian might disdain
the acclamations of a venal court, who adored the
Imperial purple ; but he was deeply flattered by the
praise, the admonition, tlie freedom, and the envy of
an independent philosopher, who refused his favours,
loved his person, celebrated his fame, and protected
his memory. The voluminous writings of Libanius
still exist : for the most part, they are the vain
and idle compositions of an orator, who cultivated
the science of words ; the productions of a recluse
student, whose mind, regardless of his contem-
poraries, was incessantly fixed on the Trojan war
and the Athenian commonwealth. Yet the sophist
of Antioch sometimes descended from this imaginary
elevation ; he entertained a various and elaborate
correspondence ; ^"^ he praised the virtues of his own
times ; he boldly arraigned the abuses of public and
private life ; and he eloquently pleaded the cause of
Antioch against the just resentment of Julian and
Theodosius. It is the common calamity of old age,^*
16 Eunapius reports that Libanius refused the honorary rank
of Praetorian praefect, as less illustrious than the title of Sophist
(in Vit. Sophist, p. 135). The critics have observed a similar
sentiment in one of the epistles (xviii. edit. Wolf) of Libanius
himself.
1'' Near two thousand of his letters, a mode of composition
in which Libanius was thought to excel, are still extant, and
already published. The critics may praise their subtle and
elegant brevity ; yet Dr. Bentley (Dissertation upon Phalaris,
p. 487) might justly, though quaintly, observe that "you feel,
by the emptiness and deadness of them, that you converse with
some dreaming pedant, with his elbow on his desk."
18 His birth is assigned to the year 314. He mentions the
648 THE DECLINE AND FALL
to lose whatever mig-ht have rendered it desirable ;
but Libanius experienced the peculiar misfortune of
surviving- the reliofiou and the sciences to which he
had consecrated his genius. The friend of Julian
was an indignant spectator of the triumph of Chris-
tianity ; and his bigotry, which darkened the prospect
of the visible world, did not inspire Libanius with any
lively hopes of celestial glory and happiness.
The martial impatience of Julian urged him to take
the field in the beginning of the spring ; and he dis-
missed, with contempt and reproach, the senate of
Antioch, who accompanied the emperor beyond the
limits of their own territory, to which he was resolved
never to return. After a laborious march of two
days,^^ he halted on the third at Bercea, or Aleppo,
where he had the mortification of finding a senate
almost entirely Christian ; who received with cold and
formal demonstrations of respect the eloquent sermon
of the apostle of paganism. The son of one of the
most illustrious citizens of Beroea, who had embraced,
either from interest or conscience, the religion of the
emperor, was disinherited by his angry parent. The
father and the son were invited to the Imperial table.
Julian, placing himself between them, attempted, with-
out success, to inculcate the lesson and example of
toleration ; supported, with affected calmness, the in-
discreet zeal of the aged Christian, who seemed to
forget the sentiments of nature and the duty of a
subject ; and at length turning towards the afflicted
youth, ''Since you have lost a father," said he, "for
my sake, it is incumbent on me to supply his place."
The emperor was received in a manner much more
seventy-sixth year of his age (a.d. 390), and seems to allude to
some events of a still later date.
^8 From Antioch to Litarbe, on the territory of Chalcis, the
road, over hills and through morasses, was extremely bad ; and
the loose stones were cemented only with sand. Julian, epist,
xxvii. It is singular enough that the Romans should have
neglected the great communication Ijetween -Antioch and the
Euphrates.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 549
agreeable to his wishes at Batnae, a small town pleasantly
seated in a grove of cypresses, about twenty miles
from the city of Hierapolis. The solemn rites of
sacrifice were decently prepared by the inhabitants of
Batna}_, who seemed attached to the worship of their
tutelar deities, Apollo and Jupiter ; but the serious
piety of Julian was offended by the tumult of their
applause ; and he too clearly discerned that the smoke
which arose from their altars was the incense of flattery
rather than of devotion. Tlie ancient and m.agniticent
temple, which had sanctified, for so many a^^^es, the
city of Hierapolis, no longer subsisted ; and the con-
secrated wealth, which afforded a liberal maintenance
to more than three hundred priests, might hasten its
downfall. Yet Julian enjoyed the satisfaction of em-
bracing a philosopher and a friend, whose religious
firmness had withstood the pressing and repeated soli-
citations of Constantius and Gallus, as often as those
princes lodged at his house, in their passage through
Hierapolis. In the hurry of military preparation, and
the careless confidence of a familiar correspondence,
the zeal of Julian appears to have been lively and
uniform. He had now undertaken an important and
difficult war ; and the anxiety of the event rendered
him still more attentive to observe and register the
most trifling presages from which, according to the
rules of divination, any knowledge of futurity could be
derived. He informed Libanius of his progress as far
as Hierapolis, by an elegant epistle, which displays the
facility of his genius and his tender friendship for the
sophist of Antioch.
Hierapolis, situate almost on the banks of the
Euphrates, had been appointed for the general ren-
dezvous of the Roman troops, who immediately passed
the great river on a bridge of boats, which was pre-
viously constructed.2<^ If the inclinations of Julian
20 There are three passages within a few miles of each other :
I. Zeugma, celebrated by the ancients ; 2. Bir, frequented by
the moderns ; and, 3. the bridge of Menbigz, or Hierapolis, at
the distance of four parasangs from the city.
660 THE DECLINE AND FALL
had been similar to those of his predecessor, he might
have wasted the active and important season of the
year in the circus of Samosata, or in the churches of
Edessa. But, as the warlike emperor, instead of Con-
stautius, had chosen Alexander for his model, he ad-
vanced without delay to Carrhae,^^ a very ancient city
of Mesopotamia, at the distance of fourscore miles
from Hierapolis. The temple of the Moon attracted
the devotion of Julian ; but the halt of a few days
was principally employed in completing- the immense
preparations of the Persian war. The secret of the
expedition had hitherto remained in his own breast ;
hut, as Carrhae is the point of separation of the two
great roads, he could no longer conceal whether it
was his design to attack the dominions of Sapor on
the side of the Tigris or on that of the Euphrates.
The emperor detached an army of thirty thousand
men, under the command of his kinsman Procopius,
and of Sebastian, who had been duke of Egypt. They
were ordered to direct their march towards Nisibis,
and to secure the frontier from the desultory incur-
sions of the enemy, before they attempted the passage
of the Tigris. ^Flieir subsequent operations were left
to the discretion of the generals ; but Julian expected
that, after wasting with fire and sword the fertile dis-
tricts of Media and Adiabene, they might arrive under
the walls of Ctesiphon about the same time that he
himself, advancing with equal steps along the banks
of the Euphrates, should besiege the capital of the
Persian monarchy. The success of this well-concerted
plan depended, in a great measure, on the powerful
and ready assistance of the king of Armenia, who,
without exposing the safety of his own dominions,
might detach an army of four thousand horse, and
twenty thousand foot, to the assistance of the Romans.
21 Haran. or Carrhae, was the ancient residence of the Sabfeans
and of Abraham. See the Index Geographicus of Schultens
(ad calcem Vit. Saladin.), a work from which I have obtained
much Oriental knowledge concerning the ancient and modern
geography of Syria and the adjacent countries.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 651
But the feeble Arsaces Tiranus^ kin^ of Armenia, had
degenerated still more shamefully than his father
Chosroes from the manly virtues of the great Tiridates ;
and, as the pusillanimous monarch was averse to any
enterprise of danger and glory, he could disguise hi*
timid indolence by the more decent excuses of religion
and gratitude. He expressed a pious attachment to
the memory of Constantius, from whose hands he had
received in marriage Olympias, the daughter of the
prsefect Ablavius ; and the alliance of a female who
had been educated as the destined wife of the emperor
Constans exalted the dignity of a Barbarian king.
Tiranus professed the Christian religion ; he reigned
over a nation of Christians ; and he was restrained, by
every principle of conscience and interest, from con-
tributing to the victory, which would consummate the
ruin of the church. The alienated mind of Tiranus
was exasperated by the indiscretion of Julian, who
treated the king of Armenia as his slave, and as the
enemy of the gods. The haughty and threatening
style of the Imperial mandates awakened the secret
indignation of a prince who, in the humiliating state
of dependence, was still conscious of his royal descent
from the Arsacides, the lords of the East and the
rivals of the Roman power.
The military dispositions of Julian were skilfully
contrived to deceive the spies, and to divert the
attention, of Sapor. The legions appeared to direct
their march towards .Nisibis and the ^Tigris. On a
sudden they wheeled to the right ; traversed the
level and naked plain of Carrhap ; and reached, on
the third day, the banks of the Euphrates, where the
strong town of Nicephorium, or Callinicum, had been
founded by the Macedonian kings. From thence the
emperor pursued his march, above ninety miles, along
the winding streani of the Euphrates, till, at length,
about one month after his departure from Antioch, he
discovered the towers of Circesium, the extreme limit
of the Roman dominions. The army of Julian, the
most numerous that anv of the Caesars had ever led
662 THE DECLINE AND FALL
against Persia, consisted of sixty-five thousand effective
and well-disciplined soldiers. The veteran bands of
cavalry and infantry, of Romans and Barbarians, had
been selected from the different provinces ; and a just
pre-eminence of loyalty and valour was claimed by the
hardy Gauls, who guarded the throne and person of
their beloved prince. A formidable body of Scythian
auxiliaries had been transported from another climate,
and almost from another world, to invade a distant
country, of whose name and situation they were
ignorant. The love of rapine and war allured to the
Imperial standard several tribes of Saracens, or roving
Arabs, whose service Julian had commanded, while he
sternly refused the payment of the accustomed subsidies.
The broad channel of the Euphrates was crowded by a
fleet of eleven hundred ships, destined to attend the
motion?, and to satisfy the wants, of the Roman army.
The military streilgth of the fleet was composed of fifty
armed galleys ; and these were accompanied by an
equal number of flat-bottomed boats, which might
occasionally be connected into the form of temporary
bridges. The rest of the ships, partly constructed of
timber and partly covered with raw hides, were laden
with an almost inexhaustible supply of arms and
engines, of utensils and provisions. The vigilant
humanity of Julian had embarked a very large magazine
of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the soldiers, but
he prohibited the indulgence of wine : and rigorously
stopped a longstring of superfluous camels that attempted
to follow the rear of the army. The river Chaboras
fails into the Euphrates at Circesium ; and, as soon as
the trumpet gave the signal of march, the Romans
passed the little stream which separated two irighty
and hostile empires. The custom of ancient di»<3ipline
required a military oration ; and Julian embraced
every opportunity of displaying his eloquence. He
animated the impatient and attentive legions by the
example of the inflexible courage and glorious triumphs
of their ancestors. He excited their resentment by a
lively picture of the insolence of the Persians ; and
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 653
he exhorted them to imitate his firm resolution, either
to extirpate that perfidious nation or to devote his
life in the cause of the republic. The eloquence of
Julian was enforced by a donative of one hundred
and thirty pieces of silver to every soldier ; and the
bridg-e of the Chaboras was instantly cut away, to con-
vince the troops that they must place their hopes of
safety in the success of their arms. Yet the prudence
of the emperor induced him to secure a remote
frontier, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the
hostile Arabs. A detachment of four thousand men
was left at Circesium, which completed, to the number
of ten thousand, the regular garrison of that important
fortress.
From the moment that the Romans entered the
enemy's country, the country of an active and artful
enemy, the order of march was disposed in three
columns. Tlie strength of the infantry, and conse-
quently of the whole army, was placed in the centre,
under the peculiar command of their master-general
Victor. On the right, the brave Nevitta led a column
of several legions along the banks of the Euphrates,
and almost always in sight of the fleet. The left flank
of the army was protected by the column of cavalry.
Hormisdas and Arinthaeus were appointed generals of
the horse ; and the singular adventures of Hormisdas ^2
are not undeserving of our notice. He was a Persian
prince, of the royal race of the Sassanides, who, in the
troubles of the minority of Sapor, had escaped from
prison to the hospitable court of the great Constantino.
Hormisdas at first excited the compassion, and at
length acquired the esteem, of his new masters ; his
valour and fidelity raised him to the military honours of
the Roman service ; and, though a Christian, he might
22 The adventures of Hormisdas are related with some mix-
ture of fable (Zosimus, 1. ii. pp. 100-102 ; Tillemont, Hist, des
Empereurs, torn. iv. p. 198). It is almost impossible that he
should be the brother (frater germanus) of an eldest and post-
humous child : nor do I recollect that Ammianus ever gives him
that title.
VOL. II. 8 2
654 THE DECLINE AND FALL
indulge the secret satisfaction of convincing his un-
grateful country that an oppressed subject may prove
the most dangerous enemy. Such was the disposition
of the three principal columns. The front and flanks
of the army were covered by Lucillianus with a flying
detachment of fifteen hundred light-armed soldiers,
whose active vigilance observed the most distant
signs, and conve\'ed the earliest notice^ of any hos-
tile approach. Dagalaiphus, and Secundinus duke of
Osrhoene, conducted the troops of the rear-guard ;
the baggage, securely, proceeded in the intervals of
the columns ; and the ranks, from a motive either of
use or ostentation, were formed in such open order
that the whole line of march extended almost ten
miles. The ordinary post of Julian was at the head
of the centre column ; but, as he preferred the duties
of a general to the state of a monarch, he rapidly
moved, with a small escort of light cavalry, to the
front, the rear, the flanks, wherever his presence
could animate or protect the march of the Roman
army. The country which they traversed from the
Chaboras to the cultivated lands of Assyria may be
considered as a part of the desert of Arabia, a dry
and barren waste, whicli could never be improved by
the most powerful arts of human industry. Julian
marched over the same ground which had been
trod above seven hundred years before by the foot-
steps of the younger Cyrus, and which is described
by one of the companions of his expedition, the sago
and heroic Xenophon. '^The country was a plain
throughout, as even as the sea, and full of worm-
wood ; and, if any other kind of shrubs or reeds grew
there, they had all an aromatic smell ; but no trees
could be seen. Bustiirds and ostriches, antelopes and
wild asses, appeared to be the only inhabitants of the
desert ; and the fatigues of the march were alleviated
by the amusements of the chace. " The loose sand
of the desert was frequently raised by the wind into
clouds of dust : and a great number of the soldiers
of Julian, with their tents, were suddenly tiiruwu
OF THE ROiMAN EMPIRE 655
to the ground by the violence of an unexpected
hurricane.
The sandy plains of Mesopotamia were abandoned
to the antelopes and wild asses of the desert ; but a
variety of populous towns and villages were pleasantly
situated on the banks of the Euphrates^ and in the
islands which are occasionally formed by that river.
The city of Annah, or Anatho^ the actual residence
of an Arabian Emir, is composed of two long streets,
which inclose, within a natural fortification, a small
island in the midst, and two fruitful spots on either
side of the Euphrates. The warlike inhabitants of
Anatho showed a disposition to stop the march of a
Roman emperor ; till they were diverted from such
fatal presumption by the mild exhortations of prince
Hormisdas and the approaching terrors of the fleet
and army. They implored, and experienced, the
clemency of Julian, who transplanted the people to
an advantageous settlement near Chalcis in Syria, and
admitted Pusaeus, the governor, to an honourable rank
in his service and friendship. But the impregnable
fortress of Thilutha could scorn the menace of a siege ;
and the emperor was obliged to content himself with
an insulting promise that, when he had subdued the
interior provinces of Persia, Thilutha would no longer
refuse to grace the triumph of the conqueror. The
inhabitants of the open towns, unable to resist and
unwilling to yield, fled with precipitation ; and their
houses, filled with spoil and provisions, were occupied
by the soldiers of Julian, who massacred, without
remorse, and without punishment, some defenceless
women. During the march, the Surenas, or Persian
general, and Malek Rodosaces, the renowned Emir
of the tribe of Gassan,^^ incessantly hovered round
23 Famosi nominis latro, says Ammianus ; an high encomium
for an Arab. The tribe of Gassan had settled on the edge of
Syria, and reigned some time in Damascus, under a dynasty of
thirty-one kings, or emirs, from the time of Pompey to that of
the Khalif Omar. The name of Rodosaces does not appear i;i
the lisi.
566 THE DECLINE AND FALL
the army : every straggler was intercepted ; every
detachment was attacked ; and the valiant Hormisdas
escaped with some difficulty from their hands. But
the Barbarians were finally repulsed ; the country
became every day less favourable to the operations
of cavalry ; and, when the Romans arrived at Mace-
practa, they perceived the ruins of the wall which
had been constructed by the ancient kings of Assyria
to secure their dominions from the incursions of the
Medes. These preliminaries of the expedition of Julian
appear to have employed about fifteen days ; and we
may compute near three hundred miles from the
fortress of Circesium to the wall of Mace])racta.
The fertile province of Assyria, which stretched
beyond the Tigris as far as the mountains of Media,^*
extended about four hundred miles from the ancient
wall of Macepracta to the territory of Basra, where
the united streams of the Euphrates and Tigris dis-
charge themselves into the Persian Gulf.^^ Tlie whole
country might have claimed the peculiar name of
Mesopotamia ; as the two rivers which are never
more distant than fifty, approach, between Bagdad
and Babylon, within twenty-five, miles of each other.
A multitude of artificial canals, dug without much
labour in a soft and yielding soil, connected the rivers,
and intersected the plain of Assyria. The uses of
these artificial canals were various and important.
They served to discharge the superfluous waters from
one river into the other, at the season of their respec-
** Ammianus remarks that the primitive Assyria, which com-
prehended Ninus (Nineveh) and Arbela, had assumed the more
recent and pecuhar appellation of Adiabene : and he seems to
fix Teredon, Vologesia, and Apollonia, as the extreme cities of
the actual province of Assyria.
25 The two rivers unite at Apamea, or Corna (one hundred
miles from the Persian Gulf), into the broad stream of the
Pasitigris, or Shat-ul-Arab. The Euphrates formerly reached
the sea by a separate channel, which was obstructed and
diverted by the citizens of Orchoe, about twenty miles to the
south-east of modern Basra (d'Anville, in the M^moires de
I'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. xxx. pp. 170-191).
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 557
tive inundations. Subdividing themselves into smaller
and smaller branches_, they refreshed the dry lands,
and supplied the deficiency of rain. They facilitated
the intercourse of peace and commerce ; and, as the
dams could be speedily broke down, they armed the
despair of the Assyrians with the means of opposing
a sudden deluge to the progress of an invading army.
To the soil and climate of Assyria nature had denied
some of her choicest gifts, the vine, the olive, and
the fig-tree ; but the food which supports the life of
man, and particularly wheat and barley, were pro-
duced with inexhaustible fertility ; and the husband-
man who committed his seed to the earth was frequently
rewarded with an increase of two, or even of three,
hundred. The face of the country was interspersed
with groves of innumerable palm - trees ; and the
diligent natives celebrated, either in verse or prose,
the three hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk,
the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit, were
skilfully applied. Several manufactures, especially
those of leather and linen, employed the industry of
a numerous people, and afforded valuable materials
for foreign trade ; which appears, however, to have
been conducted by the hands of strangers. Babylon
had been converted into a royal park ; but near the
ruins of the ancient capital new cities had successively
arisen, and the populousness of the country was dis-
played in the multitude of towns and villages, which
were built of bricks, dried in the sun, and strongly
cemented with bitumen, the natural and peculiar
production of the Babylonian soil. While the suc-
cessors of Cyrus reigned over Asia, the province of
Assyria alone maintained, during a third part of the
year, the luxurious plenty of the table and household
of the Great King. Four considerable villages were
assigned for the; subsistence of his Indian dogs ; eight
hundred stallions and sixteen thousand mares were
constantly kept at the expense of the country, for the
royal stables ; and, as the daily tribute, which was
paid to the satrap, amounted to one English bushel
558 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
of silver, we may compute the annual revenue of
Assyria at more than twelve hundred thousand pounds
sterling. 2*^
The fields of Assyria were devoted by Julian to the
calamities of war ; and the philosopher retaliated on
a guiltless people the acts of rapine and cruelty which
had been committed by their haughty master in the
Roman provinces. The trembling Assyrians summoned
tlie rivers to their assistance ; and completed, with their
own hands, the ruin of their country. ITie roads
were rendered impracticable ; a flood of waters was
poured into the camp ; and during several days the
troops of Julian were obliged to contend with the
most discouraging hardships. But every obstacle was
surmounted by the perseverance of the legionaries,
who were inured to toil as well as to danger, and who
felt themselves animated by the spirit of their leader,
'i'he damage was gradually repaired ; the waters were
restored to their proper channels ; whole groves of
jialm-trees were cut down and placed along the broken
})arts of the road ; and the army passed over the broad
and deeper canals on bridges of floating rafts, which
Mere supported by the help of bladders. Two cities
of Assyria presumed to resist the arms of a Roman
emperor : and they both paid the severe penalty of
tlieir rashness. At the distance of fifty miles from the
royal residence of Ctesiphon, Perisabor, or Anbar,
held the second rank in the province; a city, large,
^ Assyria yielded to the Persian satrap an ariaba of silver
each day. The well-known proportion of weights and measures
(see Bishop Hooper's elaborate Inquiry), the specific gravity of
water and silver, and the value of that metal, will afford, after
a short process, the annual revenue which I have stated. Yet
the Great King received no more than looo Euboic, or Tyrian,
talents (^252,000) from Assyria. The comparison of two
passages m Herodotus (1. i. c. 192, 1. iii. c. 89-96) reveals an
important difference between \.\\q gross, and the net, revenue of
Pc'rsia ; the sums paid by the province, and the gold or silver
deposited in the royal treasure. The monarch might annually
save three millions six hundred thousand pounds, of the seven-
teen or eighteen millions raised upon the people.
363 OF THE ROxMAN EMPIRE 659
populous, and well fortified, surrounded with a double
wall, almost encompassed by a branch of the Euphrates,
and defended by the valour of a numerous g-arrison.
The exhortations of Hormisdas were repulsed with
contempt ; and the ears of the Persian prince were
wounded by a just reproach that, unmindful of his royal
birth, he conducted an army of strangers against his
king and country. The Assyrians maintained their
loyalty by a skilful, as well as vigorous, defence ; till,
the lucky stroke of a battering-ram having opened a
large breach by shattering one of the angles of the wall,
they hastily retired into the fortifications of the interior
citadel. The soldiers of Julian rushed impetuously
into the town, and, after the full gratification of every
military appetite, Perisabor was reduced to ashes ; and
the engines which assaulted the citadel were planted on
the ruins of the smoking houses, llie contest was
continued by an incessant and mutual discharge of
missile weapons ; and the superiority which the Romans
might derive from the mechanical powers of their
balistSB and catapultae was counterbalanced by the
advantage of the ground on the side of the besieged.
But as soon as an Helepolis had been constructed, which
could engage on equal terms witli the loftiest ramparts,
the tremendous aspect of a moving turret, that would
leave no hope of resistance or of mercy, terrified the
defenders of the citadel into an humble submission ;
and the place was surrendered only two days after
Julian first appeared under the walls of Perisabor.
Two thousand five hundred persons of both sexes, the
feeble remnant of a flourishing people, were permitted
to retire : the plentiful magazines of corn, of arms, and
of splendid furniture were partly distributed among
the troops, and partly reserved for the public service :
the useless stores were destroyed by fire or thrown
into the stream of the Euphrates ; and the fate of
Amifia was revenged by the total ruin of Perisabor.
The city, or rather fortress, of Maogamalcha, which
was defended by sixteen large towers, a deep ditch,
and two strong and solid walls of brick and bitumen,
660 THE DECLINE AND FALL
appears to have been constructed at tlie distance of
eleven miles, as the safeguard of the capital of Persia.
The emperor, apprehensive of leaving such an impor-
tant fortress in his rear, immediately formed the siege
of Maogamalcha ; and the Roman army was distributed,
for that purpose, into three divisons. Victor, at the
head of the cavalry, and of a detachment of heavy-
armed foot, was ordered to clear the country as far as
the banks of the Tigris and the suburbs of Ctesiphon.
The conduct of the attack was assumed by Julian
himself, who seemed to place his whole dependence
in the military engines which he erected against the
walls ; while he secretly contrived a more efficacious
method of introducing his troops into the heart of the
city. Under the direction of Nevitta and Dagalaiphus,
the trenches were opened at a considerable distance,
and gradually prolonged as far as the edge of the
ditch. The ditch was speedily filled with earth ; and,
by the incessant labour of the troops, a mine was
carried under the foundations of the walls, and sus-
tained, at sufficient intervals, by props of timber.
Three chosen cohorts, advancing in a single file, silently
explored the dark and dangerous passage ; till their
intrepid .leader whispered back the intelligence that
he was ready to issue from his confinement into the
streets of the hostile city. Julian checked their ardour
that he might ensure their success ; and immediately
diverted the attention of the garrison, by the tumult
and clamour of a general assault. The Persians, who
from their walls contemptuously beheld the progress
of an impotent attack, celebrated, with sougsjof triumph,
the glory of Sapor ; and ventured to assure the emperor
that he might ascend the starry mansion of Ormusd,
before he could hope to take the impregnable city of
Maogamalcha. The city was already taken. History
has recorded the name of a private soldier, the first who
ascended from the mine into a deserted tower. The
passage was widened by his companions, who pressed
forwards with impatient valour. Fifteen hundred
enemies were already in the midst of the city. The
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 661
astonished garrison abandoned the walls, and their
only hope of safety ; the gates were instantly burst
open ; and the revenge of the soldier, unless it were
suspended by lust or avarice, was satiated by an un-
distinguishiug massacre. The governor, who had
yielded on a promise of mercy, was burnt alive, a few
days afterwards, on a charge of having uttered some
disrespectful words against the honour of prince Hor-
misdas. The fortifications were razed to the ground ;
and not a vestige was left that the city of Maogamalcha
had ever existed. The neighbourhood of the capital
of Persia was adorned with three stately palaces, labori-
ously enriched with every production that could gratify
the luxury and pride of an Eastern monarch. The
pleasant situation of the gardens along the banks of
the Tigris was improved, according to the Persian
taste, by the symmetry of flowers, fountains, and
shady walks : and spacious parks were enclosed for
the reception of the bears, lions, and wild boars, which
were maintained at a considerable expense for the
pleasure of the royal chase. The park-walls were
broke down, the savage game was abandoned to the
darts of the soldiers, and the palaces of Sapor were
reduced to ashes, by the command of the Roman
emperor. Julian, on this occasion, showed himself
ignorant, or careless, of the laws of civility, which the
prudence and refinement of polished ages have estab-
lished between hostile princes. Yet these wanton
ravages need not excite in our breasts any vehement
emotions of pity or resentment. A simple, naked
statue, finished by the hand of a Grecian artist, is of
more genuine value, than all these rude and costly
monuments of Barbaric labour : and, if we are more
deeply afi'ected by the ruin of a palace than by the
conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have
formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of
human life.
Julian was an object of terror and hatred to the
Persians : and the painters of that nation represented
the invader of their country under the emblem of a
562 THE DECLINE AND FALL
furious lion, who vomited from his mouth a consuming
fire. To his friends and soldiers, the philosophic hero
appeared in a more am>iable light ; and his virtues were
never more conspicuously displayed than in the last,,
and most active, period of his life. He practised, with-
out effort, and almost without merit, the habitual
qualities of temperance and sobriety. According to
the dictates of that artificial wisdom which assumes an
absolute dominion over the mind and body, he sternly
refused himself the indulgence of the most natural
appetites. 2^ In the warm climate of Assyria, which
solicited a luxurious people to the gratification of
every sensual desire, a youthful conqueror preserved
his chastity pure and inviolate : nor was Julian ever
tempted, even by a motive of curiosity, to visit his
female captives of exquisite beauty, who, instead of
resisting his power, would have disputed with each
other the honour of his embraces. With the same
firmness that he resisted the allurements of love, he
sustained the hardships of war. When the Romans
marched through the flat and flooded country, their
sovereign, on foot, at the head of his legions, shared
their fatigues, and animated their diligence. In every
useful labour, the hand of Julian was prompt and
strenuous ; and the Imperial purple was wet and dirty,
as the coarse garment of the meanest soldier. The
two sieges allowed him some remarkable opportunities
of signalising his personal valour, which, in the im-
proved state of the military art, can seldom be exerted
by a prudent general. The emperor stood before the
citadel of Perisabor, insensible of his extreme danger,
and encouraged his troops to burst open the gates of
iron, till he was almost overwhelmed under a cloud of
missile weapons and huge stones that were directed
against his person. As he examined the exterior forti-
fications of Maogamalcha, two Persians, devoting them-
selves for their country, suddenly rushed upon him
27 The famous examples of Cyrus, Alexander, and Scipio
were acts of justice. Julian's chastity was voluntary, and, in
his opinion, meritorious.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 663
^ith drawn scimitars : the emperor dexterously received
their blows on his uplifted shield ; and, with a steady
and well-aimed thrust, laid one of his adversaries dead
at his feet. The esteem of a prince who possesses the
virtues which he approves is the noblest recompense of
a deserving subject ; and the authority which Julian
derived from his personal merit enabled him to revive
and enforce the rigour of ancient discipline. He
punished with death , or ignominy, the misbehaviour of
three troops of horse, who, in a skirmish with the
Surenas, had lost their honour, and one of their
standards : and he distinguished with ohsidional crowns
the valour of the foremost soldiers who had ascended
into the city of Maogamalcha. After the siege of Peri-
sabor, the firmness of the emperor was exercised by
tlie insolent avarice of the army, who loudly com-
plained that their services were rewarded by a trifling
donative of one hundred pieces of silver. His just
indignation was expressed in the grave and manly
language of a Roman. " Riches are the object of your
desires.'' those riches are in the hands of the Persians ;
and the spoils of this fruitful country are proposed as
the prize of your valour and discipline. Believe me,"
added Julian, ^^ the Roman republic, which formerly
possessed such immense treasures, is now reduced to
want and wretchedness ; since our princes have been
persuaded, by weak and interested ministers, to pur-
chase with gold the tranquillity of the Barbarians. The
revenue is exhausted ; the cities are ruined ; the pro-
vinces are dispeopled. For myself, the only inheritance
that 1 have received from my royal ancestors is a soul
incapable of fear ; and, as long as I am convinced that
every real advantage is seated in the mind, I shall not
blush to acknowledge an honourable poverty, which,
in the days of ancient virtue, was considered as the
glory of Fabricius. lliat glory, and that virtue, may be
your own, if you will listen to the voice of Heaven,
and of your leader. But, if you will rashly persist, if
you are determined to renew the shameful and mis-
cliie\ous examples of old seditious, proceed. — As it
664 THE DECLINE AND FALL
becomes an emperor who has filled the first rank
Among men, I am prepared to die, standing ; and to
despise a precarious life, which, every hour, may de-
pend on an accidental fever. If I have been found
unworthy of the command, there are now among you
(I speak it with pride and pleasure), there are many
chiefs, whose merit and experience are equal to the
conduct of the most important war. Such has been
the temper of my reign that I can retire, without
regret, and without apprehension, to the obscurity of
a private station." ^ The modest resolution of Julian
was answered by the unanimous applause and cheerful
obedience of the Romans ; who declared their con-
fidence of victory, while they fought under the banners
of their heroic prince. Their courage was kindled by
his frequent and familiar asseverations (for such wishes
were the oaths of Julian), '^So may I reduce the Per-
sians under the yoke ! " '^ Thus may I restore tlie
strength and splendour of the republic !" The lo\'0
of fame was the ardent passion of his soul ; but it was
not before he trampled on the ruins of Maogamalcha,
that he allowed himself to say, " We have now pro-
vided some materials for the sophist of Antioch."
The successful valour of Julian had triumphed over
all the obstacles that opposed his march to the gates
of Ctesiphon. But the reduction, or even the siege,
of the capital of Persia was still at a distance : nor can
the military conduct of the emperor be clearly appre-
hended without a knowledge of the country which was
the theatre of his bold and skilful operations. Twenty
miles to the south of Bagdad, and on the eastern bank
of the Tigris, the curiosity of travellers has observed
some ruins of the palaces of Ctesiphon, which, in the
time of Julian, was a great and populous city. The
name and glory of the adjacent Seleucia were for
ever extinguished ; and the only remaining quarter
* I give this speech as original and genuine. Ammianus
might hear, could transcribe, and was incapable of inventing, it.
I have used some slight freedoms, and conclude with the most
forcible sentence.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 665
of that Greek colony had resumed, with the Assyrian
language and manners, the primitive appellation of
Coche. Coche was situate on the western side of the
Tigris ; but it was naturally considered as a suburb
of Ctesiphon, with which we may suppose it to have
been connected by a permanent bridge of boats. The
united parts contributed to form the common epithet
of Al Modain, the cities, which the Orientals have
bestowed on the winter residence of the Sassanides ;
and the whole circumference of the Persian capital
was strongly fortified by the waters of the river, by
lofty walls, and by impracticable morasses. Near the
ruins of Seleucia, the camp of Julian was fixed ; and
secured, by a ditch and rampart, against the sallies of
the numerous and enterprising garrison of Coche. In
this fruitful and pleasant country, the Romans were
plentifully supplied with water and forage ; and several
forts which might have embarrassed the motions of
the army submitted, after some resistance, to the
efforts of their valour. The fleet passed from the
Euphrates into an artificial derivation of that river,
which pours a copious and navigable stream into the
Tigris, at a small distance below the great city. If
they had followed this royal canal, which bore the
name of Nahar-Malcha,^^ the intermediate situation
of Coche would have separated the fleet and army of
Julian ; and the rash attempt of steering against the
current of the Tigris, and forcing their way through
the midst of a hostile capital, must ha^e been attended
with the total destruction of the Roman navy. The
prudence of the emperor foresaw the danger, and pro-
vided the remedy. As he had minutely studied the
operations of Trajan in the same country, he soon re-
collected that his warlike predecessor had dug a new
and navigable canal, which, leaving Coche on the
2S The royal canal [Nahar Malcha) might be successively
restored, altered, divided, &c. (Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. torn,
ii. p. 453) ; and these changes may serve to explain the seeming
contradictions of antiquity. In the time of Julian, it must have
fallen into the Euphrates belcnv Ctesiphon.
666 THE DECLINE AND FALL
right hand, conveyed the waters of the Nahar-Malcha
into the river Tig-ris, at some distance above the cities.
From the information of the peasants, Julian ascer-
tained the vestig-es of this ancient work, which were
almost obliterated by design or accident By the in-
defatigable labour of the soldiers, a broad and deep
channel was speedily prepared for the reception of the
Euphrates. A strong dyke was constructed to inter-
rupt the ordinary current of the Nahar-Malcha : a
flood of waters rushed impetuously into their new
bed ; and the Roman fleet, steering their triumphant
course into the Tigris, derided the vain and inefl'ectual
barriers which the Persians of Ctesiphon had erected
to oppose their passage.
As it became necessary to transport the Roman
army over the Tigris, another labour presented itself,
of less toil, but of more danger, than the preceding
expedition. The stream was broad and rapid ; the
ascent steep and difficult ; and the intrench ments,
which had been formed on the ridge of the opposite
bank, were lined with a numerous army of heavy
cuirassiers, dexterous archers, and huge elephants ;
who (according to the extravagant hyperbole of Liba-
nius) could trample, with the same ease, a fleld of
corn, or a legion of Romans. In the presence of such
an enemy, the construction of a bridge was impracti-
cable ; and the intrepid prince, who instantly seized
the only possible expedient, concealed his design, till
the moment of execution, from the knowledge of the
Barbarians, of his own troops, and even of his generals
themselves. Under the specious pretence of examining
the state of the magazines, fourscore vessels were
gradually unladen ; and a select detachment, appa-
rently destined for some secret expedition, was ordered
to stand to their arms on the first signal. Julian dis-
guised the silent anxiety of his own mind with smiles
of confidence and joy ; and amused the hostile nations
with the spectacle of military games, which he insult-
ingly celebrated under the walls of Coche. The day
was consecrated to pleasure ; but, as soon as the
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 567
hour of supper was past, the emperor summoned the
i^enerals to his tent ; and acquainted them that he
had fixed that night for the passage of the Tigris.
They stood in silent and respectful astonishment ;
but, when the venerable Sallust assumed the privi-
lege of his age and experience, the rest of the chiefs
supported with freedom the weight of his prudent
remonstrances. Julian contented himself with ob-
serving that conquest and safety depended on tlie
attempt ; that, instead of diminishing, the number of
their enemies would be increased, by successive rein-
forcements ; and that a longer delay would neither
contract the breadth of the stream nor level the
height of the bank. The signal was instantly given,
and obeyed : the most impatient of the legionaries
leaped into five vessels that lay nearest to the bank ;
and, as they plied their oars with intrepid diligence,
they were lost, after a few moments, in the darkness
of the night. A flame arose on the opposite side ;
and Julian, who too clearly understood that his fore-
most vessels, in attempting to land, had been fire<i
by the enemy, dexterously converted their extreme
danger into a presage of victory. " Our fellow-
soldiers," he eagerly exclaimed, ''are already masters
of the bank ; see — they make the appointed signal :
let us hasten to emulate and assist their courage."
The united and rapid motion of a great fleet broke
the violence of the current, and they reached the
eastern shore of the Tigris with sufficient speed to
extinguish the flames and rescue their adventurous
companions. The difficulties of a steep and lofty
ascent were increased by the weight of armour and
the darkness of the night. A shower of stones, darts,
and fire was incessantly discharged on the heads of
the assailants ; who, after an arduous struggle, climbed
the bank, and stood victorious upon the ramparts. As
soon as they possessed a more equal field, Julian, who,
with his light infantry, had led the attack, darted
through the ranks a skilful and experienced eye : his
bravest soldiers, according to the precepts of Homer,
668 THE DECLINE AND FALL ad.
were distributed in the front and rear ; and all the
trumpets of the imperial army sounded to battle. The
Romans, after sending up a military shout, advanced
in measured steps to the animating notes of martial
music ; launched their formidable javelins ; and rushed
forwards with drawn swords, to deprive the Barbarians,
by a closer onset, of the advantage of their missile
weapons. The whole engagement lasted above twelve
hours ; till the gradual retreat of the Persians was
changed into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful
example was given by the principal leaders, and the
Surenas himself. They were pursued to the gates of
Ctesiphon ; and the conquerors might have entered
the dismayed city, if their general, Victor, who was
dangerously wounded with an arrow, had not con-
jured them to desist from a rash attempt, which must
be fatal, if it were not successful. On their side, the
Romans acknowledged the loss of only seventy-five
men ; while they affirmed that the Barbarians had left
on the field of battle two thousand five hundred, or
even six thousand, of their bravest soldiers. Ilie spoil
was such as might be expected from the riches and
luxury of an Oriental camp ; large quantities of silver
and gold, splendid arms and trappings, and beds and
tables of massy silver. The victorious emperor dis-
tributed, as the rewards of valour, some honourable
gifts, civic and mural and naval crowns ; which he,
and perhaps he alone, esteemed more precious than
the wealth of Asia. A solemn sacrifice was offered to
the god of war, but the appearances of the victims
threatened the most inauspicious events ; and Julian
soon discovered, by less ambiguous signs, that he had
now reached the term of his prosperity.
On the second day after the battle, the domestic
guards, the Jovians and Herculians, and the remain-
ing troops, which composed near two-thirds of the
whole army, were securely wafted over the Tigris.^
3" The fleet and army were formed in three divisions, of
which the first only had passed during the night (Ammian.
xxiv. 6). The iraaa dopv^opca, whom Zosimus transports on
363 OF THE ROMAxN EAiPIRE 669
\Miile the Persians beheld from the walls of Ctesiphon
the desolation of the adjacent country, Julian cast
many an anxious look towards the S^orth, in full
expectation that, as he himself had victoriously
penetrated to the capital of Sapor, the march and
junction of his lieutenants, Sebastian and Procopius,
would be executed with the same courage and dili-
gence. His expectations were disappointed by the
treachery of the Armenian king, who permitted,
and most probably directed, the desertion of his
auxiliary troops from the camp of the Romans ; and
by the dissensions of the two generals, who were
incapable of forming or executing any plan for the
public service. VVlien the emperor had relinquished
the hope of this important reinforcement, he con-
descended to hold a council of war, and approved,
after a full debate, the sentiment of those generals
who dissuaded the siege of Ctesiphon as a fruitless
and pernicious undertaking. It is not easy for us
to conceive by what arts of fortification a city thrice
besieged and taken by the predecessors of Julian
could be rendered impregnable against an army of
sixty thousand Romans, commanded by a brave and
experienced general, and abundantly supplied with
ships, provisions, battering engines, and military
stores. But we may rest assured, from the love of
glory, and contempt of danger, which formed the
character of Julian, that he was not discouraged by
any trivial or imaginary obstacles. At the very time
when he declined the siege of Ctesiphon, he rejected,
with obstinacy and disdain, the most flattering offers
of a negotiation of peace. Sapor, who had been so
long accustomed to the tardy ostentation of Con-
stantius, was surprised by the intrepid diligence of
his successor. As far as the confines of India and
Scythia, the satraps of the distant provinces were
the third day (1. ill. p. 183), might consist of the protectors,
among whom the historian Ammianus, and the future emperor
Jovian, actually served, some schools of the domestics, and per-
haps the Jovians and Herculians, who often did duty as guards.
570 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
ordered to assemble their troops, and to march,
without delay, to the assistance of their monarch.
But their preparations were dilatory, their motions
slow ; and, before Sapor could lead an army into the
field, he received the melancholy intelligence of the
devastation of Assyria, the ruin of his palaces, and
the slaughter of his bravest troops, who defended
the passage of the Tigris. The pride of royalty was
humbled in the dust ; he took his repasts on the
ground ; and the disorder of his hair expressed the
grief and anxiety of his mind. Perhaps he would
not have refused to purchase, with one half of his
kingdom, the safety of the remainder : and he would
have gladly subscribed himself, in a treaty of peace,
the faithful and dependent ally of the Roman con-
queror. Under the pretence of private business, a
minister of rank and confidence was secretly des-
patched to embrace the knees of Hormisdas, and to
request, in the language of a suppliant, that he might
be introduced into the presence of the emperor. The
Sassanian prince, whether he listened to the voice of
pride or humanity, whether he consulted the senti-
ments of his birth or the duties of his situation, was
equally inclined to promote a salutary measure, which
would terminate the calamities of Persia, and secure
the triumph of Rome. He was astonished by the
inflexible firmness of a hero, who remembered, most
unfortunately for himself and for his country, that
Alexander had uniformly rejected the propositions of
Darius. But, as Julian was sensible that the hope
of a safe and honourable peace might cool the ardour
of his troops, he earnestly requested that Hormisdas
would privately dismiss the minister of Sapor and
conceal this dangerous temptation from the knowledge
of the camp.'*
51 Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. 130, p. 354, c. 13Q. p. 361 ;
Socrates, 1. iii. c. 21. The ecclesiastical historian imputes thr
refusal of peace to the advice of Maxiraus. Such advice was
unworthy of a philosopher ; but the philosopher was likewise a
magician, who flattered the hopes and passions of his master.
363 OF THE ROMAN ExMPTRE 571
The honour^ as well as interest, of Julian forbade
him to consume his time under the impregnable walls
of Ctesiphon ; and, as often as he defied the Bar-
barians, who defended the city, to meet him on the
open plain, they prudently replied that, if he desired
to exercise his valour, he might seek the army of the
Great King. He felt the insult, and he accepted the
advice. Instead of confining his servile march to
the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, he resolved
to imitate the adventurous spirit of Alexander, and
boldly to advance into the inland provinces, till he
forced his rival to contend with him, perhaps in the
plains of Arbela, for the empire of Asia. The magna-
nimity of Julian was applauded and betrayed by the
arts of a noble Persian, who, in the cause of his
country, had generously submitted to act a part full
of danger, of falsehood, and of shame.^^ With a train
of faithful followers, he deserted to the Imperial
camp ; exposed, in a specious tale, the injuries which
he had sustained ; exaggerated the cruelty of Sapor,
the discontent of the people, and the weakness of the
monarchy ; and confidently offered himself as the
hostage and guide of the Roman march. The most
rational grounds of suspicion were urged, without
effect, by the wisdom and experience of Hormisdas ;
and the credulous Julian, receiving the traitor into
his bosom, was persuaded to issue an hasty order,
which, in the opinion of mankind, appeared to arraign
his prudence, and to endang-er his safety. He de-
stroyed, in a single hour, the whole navy, which had
been transported above five hundred miles, at so great
expense of toil, of treasure, and of blood. Twelve, or,
at the most, twenty-two, small vessels were saved, to
accompany, on carriages, the march of the army, and
32 The arts of this new Zopynis (Greg. Nazianzen, Oral. iv.
pp. IIS, 1x6) may derive some credit from the testimony of two
abbreviators (Sextus Rufus and Victor), and the casual hints
of Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. 134, p. 357), and Ammianus
(xxiv. 7). The course of genuine history is interrupted by a
most unseasonable chasm in the text of Ammianus.
672 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
to form occasional bridges for the passage of the
rivers. A supply of twenty days' provisions was
reserved for the use of the soldiers ; and the rest of
the magazines, with a fleet of eleven hundred vessels,
which rode at anchor in the Tigris, were abandoned to
the flames, by the absolute command of the emperor.
The Christian bishops, Gregory and Augustin, insult
the madness of the apostate, who executed, with his
own hands, the sentence of divine justice. Their
authority, of less weight, perhaps, in a military
question, is confirmed by the cool judgment of an
experienced soldier, who was himself spectator of
the conflagration, and who could not disapprove
the reluctant murmurs of the troops. Yet there
are not wanting some specious and perhaps solid
reasons, which might justify the resolution of Julian.
The navigation of the Euphrates never ascended
above Babylon, nor that of the Tigris above Opis.
The distance of the last-mentioned city from the
Roman camp was not very considerable ; and Julian
must soon have renounced the vain and impracticable
attempt of forcing upwards a great fleet against the
stream of a rapid river, which in several places was
embarrassed by natural or artificial cataracts. The
power of sails or oars was insufficient ; it became
necessary to tow the ships against the current of the
river ; the strength of twenty thousand soldiers was
exhausted in this tedious and servile labour ; and, if
the Romans continued to march along the banks of
the Tigris, they could only expect to return home
without achieving any enterprise worthy of the
genius or fortune of their leader. If, on the contrary,
it was advisable to advance into the inland country,
the destruction of the fleet and magazines was the
only measure which could save that valuable prize
from the hands of the numerous and active troops
which might suddenly be poured from the gates of
Ctesiphon. Had the arms of Julian been victorious,
we should now admire the conduct, as well as the
courage, of a hero, who, by depriving his soldiers of
363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 573
the hopes of a retreat, left them only the alternative
of death or conquest. ^^
The cumhersome train of artillery and wa^g-ons
which retards the operations of a modern army were
in a g-reat measure unknown in the camps of the
Romans. Yet, in every age, the subsistence of sixty
thousand men must have been one of the most impor-
tant cares of a prudent general ; and that subsistence
could only be drawn from his own or from the enemy's
country. Had it been possible for Julian to maintain
a bridge of communication on the Tigris, and to pre-
serve the conquered places of Assyria, a desolated
province could not afford any large or regular supplies,
in a season of the year when the lands were covered
by the inundation of the Euphrates,^ and the un-
wholesome air was darkened with swarms of innumer-
able insects.^ The appearance of the hostile country
•R-as far more inviting. The extensive region that lies
between the river Tigris and the mountains of Media
was filled with villages and towns ; and the fertile soil,
for the most part, was in a very improved state of
cultivation. Julian might expect that a conqueror
who possessed the two forcible instruments of per-
suasion, steel and gold, would easily procure a plenti-
ful subsistence from the fears or the avarice of the
natives. But on the approach of the Romans, this rich
and smiling prospect was instantly blasted. "VVherever
33 Recollect the successful and applauded rashness of
Agathocles and Cortez, who burnt their ships on the coasts
of Africa and Mexico.
^ The Tigris rises to the south, the Euphrates to the north,
of the Armenian mountains. The former overflows in March,
the latter in July. These circumstances are well explained in
the Geographical Dissertation of Foster, inserted in Spelman's
Expedition of Cyrus, vol. ii. p. 26.
35 Ammianus (xxiv. 8) describes, as he had felt, the incon-
veniency of the flood, the heat, and the insects. The lands of
Assyria, oppressed by the Turks, and ravaged by the Curds,
or Arabs, yield an increase of ten, fifteen, and twenty-fold, for
the seed which is cast into the ground by the wretched and
unskilful husbandmen.
o74 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.i>.
they moved, the inhabitants deserted the open villages,
and took shelter in the fortified towns ; the cattle was
driven away ; the grass and ripe corn were consumed
with fire ; and, as soon as the iiames had subsided
which interrupted the march of Julian, he beheld the
melancholy face of a smoking and naked desert. This
desperate but effectual method of defence can only be
executed by the enthusiasm of a people who prefer
their independence to their property ;,or by the rigour
of an arbitrary government, which consults the public
safety without submitting to their inclinations the
liberty of choice. On the present occasion, the zeal
and obedience of the Persians seconded the commands
of Sapor ; and the emperor was soon reduced to the
scanty stock of provisions, which continually wasted
in his hands. Before they were entirely consumed,
he might still have reached the wealthy and unwarlike
cities of Ecbatana or Susa, by the effort of a well-
directed marcii ; ^ but he was deprived of this last
resource by his ignorance of the roads, and by the
perfidy of his guides. The Romans wandered several
days in the country to the eastward of Bagdad : the
Persian deserter, who had artfully led them into the
snare, escaped from their resentment; and his followers,
as soon as they were put to the torture, confessed the
secret of the conspiracy. The visionary conquests of
Hyrcania and India, which had so long amused, now
tormented, the mind of Julian. Conscious that his
own imprudence was the cause of the public distress,
he anxiously balanced the hopes of safety or success,
without obtaining a satisfactory answer either from
gods or men. At length, as the only practicable
measure, he embraced the resolution of directing his
steps towards the banks of the Tigris, with the design
of saving the army by a hasty march to the confines
36 Isidore of Charax (Mansion. Parthic. pp. 5, 6, in Hudson,
Geograph. Minor, torn, ii) reckons 129 scbaeni from Seleucia,
and Th^venot (part i. 1. i. ii. pp. 209-245) 128 hours of march
from Bagdad, to Ecbatana, or Hamadam, These measures
cannot exceed an ordinary parasang, or three Roman miles.
363 OF THE ROiMA^N' EMPIRE 576
of Corduene ; a fertile and friendly province, which
acknowledg-ed the sovereignty of Rome. The de-
sponding troops obeyed the signal of the retreat, only
seventy days after they had passed the Chaboras with
the sanguine expectation of subverting the throne of
Persia.
As long as the Romans seemed to advance into the
country, their march was observed and insulted from
a distance by several bodies of Persian cavalry ; who,
showing themselves sometimes in loose, and sometimes
in closer, order, faintly skirmished with the advanced
guards. These detachments were, however, supported
by a much greater force ; and the heads of the columns
were no sooner pointed towards the Tigris than a cloud
of dust arose on the plain. The Romans, who now
aspired only to the permission of a safe and speedy
retreat, endeavoured to persuade themselves that this
formidable appearance was occasioned by a troop of
wild asses, or perhaps by the approach of some friendly
Arabs. They halted, pitched their tents, fortified their
camp, passed the whole night in continual alarms ; and
discovered, at the dawn of day, that they were sur-
rounded by an army of Persians. This army, which
might be considered only as the van of the Barbarians,
was soon followed by the main body of cuirassiers,
archers, and elephants, commanded by Meranes, a
general of rank and reputation. He was accompanied
by two of the king's sons, and many of the principal
satraps ; and fame and expectation exaggerated, the
strength of the remaining powers, which slowly ad-
vanced under the conduct of Sapor himself. As the
Romans continued their march, their long array, which
was forced to bend, or divide, according to the varieties
of the ground, afforded frequent and favourable oppor-
tunities to their vigilant enemies. The Persians re-
peatedly charged with fury ; they were repeatedly
repulsed with firmness ; and the action at Maronga,
which almost deserved the name of a battle, was
marked by a considerable loss of satraps and elephants,
perhaps of equal value in the eyes of their monarch.
676 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
These splendid advantages were not obtained without
an adequate slaughter on the side of the Romans :
several officers of distinction were either killed or
wounded ; and the emperor himself, who, on all
occasions of danger, inspired and guided the valour
of his troops, was obliged to expose his person and
exert his abilities. The weight of offensive and
defensive arms, which still constituted the strength
and safety of the Romans, disabled them from making
any long or effectual pursuit ; and, as the horsemen
of the East were trained to dart their javelins, and
shoot their arrows, at full speed, and in every possible
direction, the cavalry of Persia was never more for-
midable than in the moment of a rapid and disorderly
flight. But the most certain and irreparable loss of
the Romans was that of time. The hardy veterans,
accustomed to the cold climate of Gaul and Germany,
fainted under the sultry heat of an Assyrian summer :
their vigour was exhausted by the incessant repetition
of march and combat ; and the progress of the army
was suspended by the precautions of a slow and
dangerous retreat in the presence of an active enemy.
Every day, every hour, as the supply diminished, the
value and price of subsistence increased in the Roman
camp.^^ Julian, who always contented himself with
such food as a hungry soldier would have disdained,
distributed for the use of his troops the provisions
of the imperial household, and whatever could be
spared from the sumpter-horses of the tribunes and
generals. But this feeble relief served only to aggra-
vate the sense of the public distress ; and the Romans
began to entertain the most gloomy apprehensions
that, before they could reach the frontiers of the
"■ In Mark Antony's retreat, an attic choenix sold for fifty
drachmae, or, in other words, a pound of flour for twelve or
fourteen shillings : barley bread was sold for its weight in
silver. It is impossible to peruse the interesting narrative of
Plutarch (torn. v. pp. 102-116) without perceiving that Mark
Antony and Julian were pursued by the same enemies and
involved in the same distress.
363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 577
empire, they should all perish, either by famine or
by the sword of the Barbarians.
While Julian struggled with the almost insuperable
difficulties of his situation, the silent hours of the night
were still devoted to study and contemplation. When-
ever he closed his eyes in short and interrupted
slumbers, his mind was agitated with painful anxiety ;
nor can it be thought surprising that the Genius of
the empire should once more appear before him,
covering with a funeral veil his head and his horn of
abundance, and slowly retiring from the Imperial
tent. The monarch started from his couch, and
stepping forth, to refresh his wearied spirits with
the coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery
meteor, which shot athwart the sky, and suddenly
vanished. Julian was convinced that he had seen
the menacing countenance of the god of war ; ^ the
council which he summoned, of Tuscan haruspices,^^
unanimously pronounced that he should abstain from
action : but, on this occasion, necessity and reason
were more prevalent than superstition ; and the
trumpets sounded at the break of day. The army
marched through a hilly country ; and the hills had
been secretly occupied by the Persians. Julian led
the van, w.'th the skill and attention of a consummate
general ; he was alarmed by the intelligence that his
rear was suddenly attacked. The heat of the weather
had tempted him to lay aside his cuirass ; but he
snatched a shield from one of his attendants, and
hastened, with a sufficient reinforcement, to the relief
of the rear-guard. A similar danger recalled the intrepid
33 Amraian. xxv. 2. Julian had sworn in a passion, nunquam
se Marti sacra facturum (xxiv. 6). Such whimsical quarrels
were not uncommon between the gods and their insolent
votaries ; and even the prudent Augustus, after his fleet had
been twice shipwrecked, excluded Neptune from the honours
of public processions.
33 They still retained the monopoly of the vain, but lucrative,
science which had been invented in Etruria ; and professed
to derive their knowledge of signs and omens from the ancient
ciooks of Tarquitius, a Tuscan sage.
VOL. II. T
678 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
prince to the defence of the front ; and, as he galloped
between the columns, the centre of the left was at-
tacked, and almost overpowered, by a furious charge
of the Persian cavalry and elephants. This huge
body was soon defeated, by the well-timed evolution
of the light infantry, who aimed their weapons, with
dexterity ami effect, against the backs of the horse-
men and the legs of the elephants. The Barbarians
fled ; and Julian, who was foremost in every danger,
animated the pursuit with his voice and gestures.
His trembling guards, scattered and oppressed by
the disorderly throng of friends and enemies, re-
minded their fearless sovereign that he was without
armour ; and conjured him to decline the fall of the
impending ruin. As they exclaimed, a cloud of darts
and arrows was discharged from the flying squadrons ;
and a javelin, after razing the skin of his arm, trans-
pierced the ribs, and fixed in the inferior part of the
liver. Julian attempted to draw the deadly weapon
from his side ; but his fingers were cut by the sharp-
ness of the steel, and he fell senseless from his horse.
His guards flew to his relief ; and the wounded
emperor was gently raised from the ground, and
conveyed out of the tumult of the battle into an
adjacent tent. The report of the melancholy event
passed from rank to rank ; but the grief of the
Romans inspired them with invincible valour and
the desire of revenge. The bloody and obstinate
conflict was maintained by the two armies, till they
were separated by the total darkness of the night.
The Persians derived some honour from the advantage
which they obtained against the left wing, where
Anatolius, master of the offices, was slain, and the
praefect Sallust very narrowly escaped. But the event
of the day was adverse to the Barbarians. They aban-
doned the field, their two generals, Meranes and
Nohordates,''^ fifty nobles or satraps, and a multitude
*" Sapor himself declared to the Romans that it was his
practice to comfort the families of his deceased satraps by
363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 679
of their bravest soldiers : and the success of the
Romans, if Julian had survived, might have been
improved into a decisive and useful victory.
The first words that Julian uttered, after his re-
covery from the fainting fit into which he had been
thrown by loss of blood, were expressive of his martial
spirit. He called for his horse and arms, and was im-
patient to rush into the battle. His remaining strength
was exhausted by the painful effort ; and the surgeons
who examined his wound discovered the symptoms of
approaching death. He employed the awful moments
with the firm temper of a hero and a sage ; the
philosophers who had accompanied him in this fatal
expedition compared the tent of Julian with the prison
of Socrates ; and the spectators, whom duty, or friend-
ship, or curiosity, had assembled around his couch,
listened with respectful grief to the funeral oration of
their dying emperor.*^ ^'Friends and fellow-soldiers,
the seasonable period of my departure is now arrived,
and I discharge, with the cheerfulness of a ready
debtor, the demands of nature. I have learned from
philosophy, how much the soul is more excellent than
the body ; and that the separation of the nobler sub-
stance should be the subject of joy, rather than of
affliction. I have learned from religion, that an early
death has often been the reward of piety ; ^^ and I
accept, as a favour of the gods, the mortal stroke that
secures me from the danger of disgracing a character,
sending: them, as a present, the heads of the guards and officers
who had not fallen by their master's side.
■"■ The character and situation of Julian might countenance
the suspicion that he had previously composed the elaborate
oration which Ammianus heard and has transcribed. The
version of the Abb6 de la Bl^terie is faithful and elegant. I
have followed him in expressing the Platonic idea of emana-
tions, which is darkly insinuated in the original.
42 Herodotus (1. i. c. 31) has displayed that doctrine in an
agreeable tale. Yet the Jupiter (in the i6th book of the Iliad)
who laments with tears of blood the death of Sarpedon his
son had a very imperfect notion of happiness or glory beyond
the grave.
680 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
which has hitherto been supported by virtue and forti-
tude. I die without remorse, as I have lived without
guilt. I am pleased to reflect on the innocence of my
private life ; and I can affirm, with confidence, that
the supreme authority, that emanation of the Divine
Power, has been preserved in my hands pure and
immaculate. Detesting the corrupt and destructive
maxims of despotism, I have considered the happiness
of the people as the end of government. Submitting
my actions to the laws of prudence, of justice, and of
moderation, I have trusted the event to the care of
Providence. Peace was the object of my counsels, as
long as peace was consistent with the public welfare ;
but, when the imperious voice of my country summoned
me to arms, I exposed my person to the dangers of
war, with the clear foreknowledge (which I have ac-
quired from the art of divination) that I was destined
to fall by the sword. I now oifer my tribute of grati-
tude to the Eternal Being, who has not suffered me to
perish by the cruelty of a tyrant, by the secret dagger
of conspiracy, or by the slow tortures of lingering
disease. He has given me, in the midst of an honour-
able career, a splendid and glorious departure from
this world ; and 1 hold it equally absurd, equally base,
to solicit, or to decline, the stroke of fate. Thus
much I have attempted to say ; but my strength fails
me, and I feel the approach of death. — I shall cautiously
refrain from any word that may tend to influence your
suflVages in the election of an emperor. My choice
might be imprudent, or injudicious ; and, if it should
not be ratified by the consent of the army, it might be
fatal to the person whom I should recommend. I shall
only, as a good citizen, express my hopes that the
Romans may be blesf^ed with the government of a
virtuous sovereign." After this discourse, which Julian
pronounced in a firm and gentle tone of voice, he
distributed, by a military testament,'*^ the remains of
■*3 The soldiers who made their verbal, or nuncupatoiy,
testaments upon actual service (in procinctu) were exempted
from the formalities of the Roman law.
363 OF THE ROM.\N EMPIRE 581
his private fortune ; and, making some inquiry why
Anatolius was not present, he understood, from the
answer of Sallust^ that Anatolius was killed ; and
bewailed, with amiable inconsistency, the loss of his
friend. At the same time he reproved the immoderate
grief of the spectators ; and conjured them not to
disg-race, by unmanly tears, the fate of a prince who
in a few moments would be united with heaven, and
with the stars. ^* The spectators were silent; and
Julian entered into a metaphysical argument with the
philosophers Prisons and Maximus, on the nature of
the soul. The efforts which he made, of mind as well
as body, most probably hastened his death. His wound
began to bleed with fresh violence ; his respiration was
embarrassed by the swelling of the veins : he called
for a draught of cold water, and, as soon as he had
drunk it, expired without pain, about the hour of mid-
night. Such was the end of that extraordinary man.
in the thirty-second year of his age, after a reign of
one year and about eight months from the death
of Constantius. In his last moments he displayed,
perhaps with some ostentation, the love of virtue and
of fame which had been the ruling passions of his life.*'"
The triumph of Christianity, and the calamities of
the empire, may, in some measure, be ascribed tc>
Julian himself, who had neglected to secure the future
execution of his designs by the timely and judicioui'
nomination of an associate and successor. But the
royal race of Constantius Chlorus was reduced to his
own person ; and, if he entertained any serious thoughts
of investing with the purple the most worthy among
** This union of the human soul with the divine aetherial
substance of the universe is the ancient doctrine of Pythagoras
and Plato ; but it seems to exclude any personal or conscious
immortality.
■*5 The whole relation of the death of Julian is given by
Ammianus (xxv, 3), an intelligent spectator. Libanius, vho
turns with horror from the scene, has supplied some circum-
stances (Orat. Parental, c. 136-140, pp. 359-362). The calumnie?
of Gregory, and the legends of more recent saints, may now
be silently despised.
582 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
the Roniaus, he was diverted from his resolution b}'
the difficulty of the choice, the jealousy of power, the
fear of ingratitude, and the natural presumption of
health, of youth, and of prosperity. His unexpected
death left the empire without a master and without
an heir, in a state of perplexity and danger, M^hich,
in the space of fourscore years, had never been experi-
enced, since the election of Diocletian. In a govern-
ment which had almost forgotten the distinction of
pure and noble blood, the superiority of birth was of
little moment ; the claims of official rank were acci-
dental and precarious ; and the candidates who might
aspire to ascend the vacant throne could be supported
only by the consciousness of personal merit, or by
the hopes of popular favour. But the situation of a
famished army, encompassed on all sides by an host of
Barbarians, shortened the moments of grief and de-
liberation. In this scene of terror and distress, the
body of the deceased prince, according to his own
directions, was decently embalmed ; and, at the dawn
of day, the generals convened a military senate, at
which the commanders of the legions and the officers,
both of cavalry and infantry, were invited to assist.
Three or four hours of the night had not passed away
without some secret cabals ; and, when the election of
an emperor was proposed, the spirit of faction began
to agitate the assembly. Victor and Arinthaeus col-
lected the remains of the court of Constantius ; the
friends of Julian attached themselves to the Gallic
chiefs, Dagalaiphus and Nevitta ; and the most fatal
consequences might be apprehended from the discord
of two factions, so opposite in their character and
interest, in their maxims of government, and perhaps
in their religious principles. The superior virtues of
Sallust could alone reconcile their divisions and unite
their suffrages ; and the venerable praefect would im-
mediately have been declared the successor of Julian,
if he himself, with sincere and modest firmness, had
not alleged his age and infirmities, so unequal to the
weight of the diadem. The generals, who were sur-
363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 683
prised and perplexed by his refusal, showed some dis-
position to adopt the salutary advice of an inferior
officer,^ that they should act as they would have acted
in the absence of the emperor ; that they should exert
their abilities to extricate the army from the present
distress ; and, if they were fortunate enough to reach
the confines of Mesopotamia, they should proceed with
united and deliberate counsels in the election of a
lawful sovereign. While they debated, a few voices
saluted Jovian, who was no more than first *'' of the
domestics, with the names of Emperor and Augustus.
The tumultuary acclamation was instantly repeated by
the guards who surrounded the tent, and passed, in
a few minutes, to the extremities of the line. The
new prince, astonished with his own fortune, was hastily
invested with the Imperial ornaments and received an
oath of fidelity from the generals whose favour and
protection he so lately solicited. The strongest recom-
mendation of Jovian was the merit of his father. Count
Varronian, who enjoyed, in honourable retirement,
the fruit of his long services. In the obscure freedom
of a private station, the son indulged his taste for wine
and women ; yet he supported, with credit, the char-
acter of a Christian *^ and a soldier. Without being
conspicuous for any of the ambitious qualifications
which excite the admiration and envy of mankind, the
comely person of Jovian, his cheerful temper, and
46 Honoratior aliquis miles ; perhaps Ammianus himself.
The modest and judicious historian describes the scene of the
election, at which he was undoubtedly present (xxv. 5).
^"^ The primus, or primicerius, enjoyed the dignity of a
senator ; and, though only a tribune, he ranked with the
military dukes. These privileges are perhaps more recent than
the time of Jovian.
^ The ecclesiastical historians, Socrates (1. iii. c. 22),
Sozomen (1. vi. c. 3), and Theodoret (1. iv. c. 1), ascribe to
Jovian the merit of a confessor under the preceding reig^ ; and
piously suppose that he refused the purple, till the whole army
unanimously exclaimed that they were Christians. Ammiantis,
calmly pursuing his narrative, overthrows the legend by a
single sentence. Hostiis pro Joviano extisque inspectis pro-
nuntiatum est, &c. xxv. 6.
68i THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
familiar wit, had gained the affection of his fellow-
soldiers ; and the generals of both parties acquiesced
in a popular election, which had not been conducted
by the arts of their enemies. The pride of this unex-
pected elevation was moderated by the just apprehen-
sion that the same day might terminate the life and
reign of the new emperor. The pressing voice of
necessity was obeyed without delay ; and the first
orders issued by Jovian, a few hours after his pre-
decessor had expired, were to prosecute a march which
could alone extricate the Romans from their actual
distress.*^
The esteem of an enemy is most sincerely expressed
by his fears ; and the degree of fear may be accurately
measured by the joy with which he celebrates his de-
liverance. The welcome news of the death of Julian,
which a deserter revealed to the camp of ^apor, inspired
the desponding monarch with a sudden confidence of
victory. He immediately detached the royal cavalry,
perhaps the ten thousand Immortals,^ to second and
support the pursuit ; and discharged the whole weight
of his united forces on the rear-guard of the Romans.
The rear-guard was thrown into disorder ; the re-
nowned legions, which derived their titles from Dio-
cletian and his warlike colleague, were broke and
trampled down by the elephants ; and three tribunes
lost their lives in attempting to stop the flight of their
soldiers. The battle was at length restored by the
persevering valour of the Romans ; the Persians were
repulsed with a great slaughter of men and elephants ;
and the army, after marching and fighting a long
summer's day, arrived, in the evening, at Samara on
•19 Ammianus (xxv. lo) has drawn from the life an impartial
portrait of Jovian : to which the younger Victor has added
some remarkable strokes. The Abb6 de la Bl^terie (Histoire
dc Jovien, torn. i. pp. 1-238) has composed an elaborate history
of his short reign ; a work remarkably distinguished by elegance
of style, critical disquisition, and religious prejudice.
50 Regius equitatus. It appears from Procopius that f.he
Immortals, so famous under Cyrus and his successors, were
revived, if we may use that improper word, by the Sassanides.
363 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 585
the banks of the Tij^ris^ about one hundred miles above
Ctesiphon.°^ On the ensuing day^ the Barbarians^
instead of harassing the march^ attacked the camp, of
Jovian which had been seated in a deep and sequestered
valley. From the hills^ the archers of Persia insulted
and annoyed the wearied legionaries ; and a body of
cavalry, which had penetrated with desperate courage
through the Praetorian gate, was cut in pieces, after
a doubtful conflict, near the Imperial tent. In the
succeeding night, the camp of Carche was protected
by the lofty dykes of the river ; and the Roman army,
though incessantly exposed to the vexatious pursuit
of the Saracens, pitched their tents near the city of
Dura,^- four days after the death of Julian. The
Tigris was still on their left ; their hopes and pro-
visions were almost consumed ; and the impatient
soldiers, who had fondly persuaded themselves that
the frontiers of the empire were not far distant, re-
quested their new sovereign that they might be per-
mitted to hazard the passage of the river. With the
assistance of his wisest oflicers, Jovian endeavoured to
check their rashness ; by representing that, if they
possessed sufficient skill and vigour to stem the torrent
of a deep and rapid stream, they would only deliver
themselves naked and defenceless to the Barbarians,
who had occupied the opposite banks. Yielding at
length to their clamorous importunities, he consented,
with reluctance, that live hundred Gauls and Germans,
accustomed from their infancy to the waters of the
Rhine and Danube, should attempt the bold adventure,
which might serve either as an encouragement, or as a
• 51 The obscure villages of the inland country are irrecoverably
lost ; nor can we name the field of battle where Julian fell : but
M. d'Anville has demonstrated the precise situation of Sumere,
Carche, and Dura, along the banks of the Tigris (G^ographie
Ancienne, torn. ii. p. 248. L'Euphrate et le Tigre, pp. 95, 97).
In the ninth centur}', Sumere, or Samara, became, with a
slight change of name, the royal residence ol the Khalifs of the
house of Abbas.
52 Dura was a fortified place in the wars of Antiochus against
the rebels of Media and Persia.
VOL. IT. T 2
586 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d.
warning, for the rest of the army. In the silence
of the night, they swam the Tigris, surprised an un-
guarded post of the enemy, and displayed at the dawn
of day the signal of their resolution and fortune. The
success of this trial disposed th3 emperor to listen to
the promises of his architects, who proposed to con-
struct a floating bridge of the inflated skins of sheep,
oxen, and goats, covered with a floor of earth and
fascines.^^ Two important days were spent in the in-
effectual labour ; and the Romans, who already endured
the miseries of famine, cast a look of despair on the
Tigris, and upon the Barbarians ; whose numbers and
obstinacy increased with the distress of the Imperial
army.^*
In this hopeless situation, the fainting spirits of the
Romans were revived by the sound of peace. The
transient presumption of Sapor had vanished : he
observed, with serious concern, that, in the repetition
of doubtful combats, he had lost his most faithful and
intrepid nobles, his bravest troops, and the j^reatest
part of his train of elephants : and the experienced
monarch feared to provoke the resistance of despair,
the vicissitudes of fortune, and the unexhausted powers
of the Roman empire ; wliich might soon advance to
relieve, or to revenge, the successor of Julian. The
Surenas himself, accompanied by another satrap, ap-
])eared in the camp of Jovian ; and declared that the
clemency of his sovereign was not averse to signify
the conditions on which he would consent to spare and
^3 A similar expedient was proposed to the leadeis of the
ten thousand, and wisely rejected. Xenophon, Anabasis, 1. iii.
pp. 255, 256, 257. It appears from our modern travellers that
rafts floating on bladders performed the trade and navigation
of the Tigris,
^ The first military acts of the reign of Jovian are related by
Ammianus (xxv. 6), Libanius, (Orat. Parent, c, 146, p. 364),
and Zosimus (1. iii. pp. 189, 190, 191). Though we may dis-
trust the fairness of Libanius, the ocular testimony of Eutropius
(uno a Persis atque altero prcelio victus, x. 17) must incline us
to suspect that Ammianus has been too jealous of the honour
of the Roman arms.
863 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 587
to dismiss the Caesar with the relics of his captive
aiTay. The hopes of safety subdued the firmness of
the Romans ; the emperor was compelled^ by the
advice of his council and the cries of the soldiers^ to
embrace the oifer of peace ; and the prsefect Sallust
was immediately sent, with the general Arinthaeus, to
understand the pleasure of the Great King. The crafty
Persian delayed, under various pretences, the con-
clusion of the agreement ; started difficulties, required
explanations, suggested expedients, receded from his
concessions, increased his demands, and wasted four
days in the arts of negotiation, till he had consumed
the stock of provisions which yet remained in the
camp of the Romans. Had Jovian been capable of
executing a bold and prudent measure, he would have
continued his march with unremitting diligence ; the
progress of the treaty would have suspended the attacks
of the Barbarians ; and, before the expiration of the
fourth day, he might have safely reached the fruitful
])rovince of Corduene, at the distance only of one
hundred miles.^^ The irresolute emperor, instead of
])reaking through the toils of the enemy, expected
his fate with patient resignation ; and accepted the
humiliating conditions of peace, which it was no longer
in his power to refuse. The five provinces beyond the
Tigris, which had been ceded by the grandfather of
Sapor, were restored to the Persian monarchy. He
acquired, by a single article, the impregnable city
of Nisibis ; which had sustained, in three successive
sieges, the efi'ort of his arms. Singara, and the castle
of the Moors, one of the strongest places of Meso-
potamia, were likewise dismembered from the empire.
It was considered as an indulgence, that the inhabitants
of those fortresses were permitted to retire with their
55 It is presumptuous to controvert the opinion of Ammianus,
a soldier and a spectator. Yet it is difficult to understand Jiow
the mountains of Corduene could extend over the plain of
Ass)Tia, as low as the conflux of the Tigris and the great Zab ;
or how an army of sixty thousand men could march one
htmdred miles in four days.
588 THE DECLINE AND FALL
eflfects ; but the conqueror rig'orously insisted that the
Romans should for ever abandon the king and kingdom
of Armenia. A peace^ or rather a long truce^ of thirty
years was stipulated between the hostile nations ; the
faith of the treaty was ratified by solemn oaths, and
religious ceremonies ; and hostages of distinguished
rank were reciprocally delivered to secure the perform-
ance of the conditions.
The sophist of Antioch, who saw with indignation
the sceptre of his hero in the feeble hand of a Cliristian
successor, professes to admire the moderation of Sapor,
in contenting himself with so small a portion of the
Roman empire. If he had stretched as far as the
Euphrates the claims of his ambition, he might have
been secure, says Libanius, of not meeting with a
refusal. If he had fixed, as the boundary of Persia,
the Orontes, the Cydnus, the Sangarius, or even the
Thracian Bosphorus, flatterers would not have been
wanting in the court of Jovian to convince the timid
monarch that his remaining provinces would still afford
the most ample gratifications of power and luxury.
Without adopting in its full force this malicious in-
sinuation, we must acknowledge that the conclusion
of so ignominious a treaty was facilitated by the private
ambition of Jovian. The obscure domestic, exalted
to the throne by fortune rather than by merit, was
impatient to escape from the hands of the Persians ;
that he might prevent the designs of Procopius, who
commanded the army of Mesopotamia, and establish
his doubtful reign over the legions and provinces,
which were still ignorant of the hasty and tumultuous
choice of the camp beyond the Tigris. In the neigh-
bourhood of the same river, at no very considerable
distance from the fatal station of Dura,^ the ten
5« The generals were murdered on the banks of the Zabatus
(Anabasis, 1. ii. p. 156, 1. ill. p. 226), or great Zab, a river of
Assyria, 400 feet broad, which falls into the Tigris fourteen
hours below Mosul. The error of the Greeks bestowed on the
great and lesser Zab the names of the Wolf (Lycus), and the
Goat (Capros). They created these animals to attend the
Tt^er of the East.
I
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 589
thousand Greeks, without generals_, or guides^ or pro-
visions^ were abandoned, above twelve hundred miles
from their native country, to the resentment of a
victorious monarch. The difference of their conduct
and success depended much more on their character
than on their situation. Instead of tamely resigning
themselves to the secret deliberations and private views
of a single person, the united councils of the Greeks
were inspired by the generous enthusiasm of a popular
assembly ; where the mind of each citizen is filled
with the love of glory, the pride of freedom, and the
contempt of death. Conscious of their superiority
over the Barbarians in arms and discipline, they
disdained to yield, they refused to capitulate ; every
obstacle was surmounted by their patience, courage,
and military skill ; and the memorable retreat of the
ten thousand exposed and insulted the weakness of
the Persian monarchy."''
As the price of his disgraceful concessions, the em-
peror might perhaps have stipulated that the camp of
the hungry Romans should be plentifully supplied ; ^
and that they should be permitted to pass the Tigris
on the bridge which was constructed by the hands of
the Persians. But, if Jovian presumed to solicit those
equitable terms, they were sternly refused by the
haughty tyrant of the East ; whose clemency had
pardoned the invaders of his country. The Saracens
sometimes intercepted the stragglers of the march ;
but the generals and troops of Sapor respected the
cessation of arms ; and Jovian was suffered to explore
the most convenient place for the passage of the river.
The small vessels, which had been saved from the con-
flagration of the fleet, performed the most essential
57 The Cyropcsdia is vague and languid : the Anabasis
circumstantial and animated. Such is the eternal difference
between fiction and truth.
^ According to Rufinus, an immediate supply of provisions
was stipulated by the treaty ; and Theodoret aflfirms that the
obligation was faithfully discharged by the Persians. Such a fact
is probable, but undoubtedly false.
590 THE DECLINE AND FALL
service. They first conveyed the emperor and his
favourites ; and afterwards transported, in many suc-
cessive voyaires, a great part of the army. But, as
every man was anxious for his personal safety, and
apprehensive of being left on the hostile shore, the
soldiers, who were too impatient to wait the slow
returns of the boats, bodly ventured themselves on
light hurdles, or inflated skins ; and, drawing after
them their horses, attempted, with various success, to
swim across the river. Many of these daring ad-
venturers were swallowed by the waves ; many others,
who were carried along by the violence of the stream,
fell an easy prey to the avarice, or cruelty, of the wild
Arabs : and the loss which the army sustained in the
passage of the Tigris was not inferior to the carnage of
a day of battle. As soon as the Romans had landed
on the western bank, they were delivered from the
hostile pursuit of the 15arbarians ; but, in a laborious
march of two hundred miles over the plains of Meso-
potiimia, they endured the last extremities of thirst
and hunger. They were obliged to traverse a sandy
desert, which, in the extent of seventy miles, did not
afford a single blade of sweet grass, nor a single spring
of fresh water ; and the rest of the inhospitable waste
was untrod by the footsteps either of friends or enemies.
Whenever a small measure of flour could be discovered
in the camp, twenty ]»ounds weight were greedily pur-
chased with ten pieces of gold : the beasts of burden
were slaughtered and devoured ; and the desert was
strewed with the arms and baggage of the Roman
soldiers, whose tattered garments and meagre counte-
nances displayed their pastsufi^erings and actual misery.
A small convoy of provisions advanced to meet the
army as far as the castle of Ur ; and the supply was
the more grateful, since it declared the fidelity of
Sebastian and Procopius. At lliilsaphata, the emperor
most graciously received the generals of Mesopotamia,
and the remains of a once flourishing army at length
reposed themselves under the walls of Nisibis. The
messengers of Jovian had already proclaimed, in the
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE o91
language of flattery, tis election^ his treaty, aud his
return ; and the new prince had taken the most
effectual measures to secure the allegiance of the
armies and provinces of Europe ; by placing the
military command in the hands of those officers who,
from motives of interest or inclination, would firmly
support the cause of their benefactor.
The friends of Julian had confidently announced
the success of his expedition. They entertained a
fond persuasion that the temples of the gods would
be enriched with the spoils of the East; that Persia
would be reduced to the humble state of a tributary
province, governed by the laws and magistrates of
Rome ; that the Barbarians would adopt' the dress,
and manners, aud language, of their conquerors ; and
that the youth of Ecbatana and Susa would study the
art of rhetoric under Grecian masters.°^ The progress
of the arms of Julian interrupted his communication
with the empire ; and, from the moment that he passed
the Tigris, his affectionate subjects were ignorant of
the fate and fortunes of their prince. Their contem-
plation of fancied triumphs was disturbed by the
melancholy rumour of his death ; and they persisted
to doubt, after they could no longer deny, the truth
of that fatal event.'^'' The messengers of Jovian pro-
mulgated the specious tale of a prudent and necessary
peace : the voice of fame, louder and more sincere,
revealed the disgrace of the emperor and the conditions
of the ignominious treaty. The minds of the people
were filled with astonishment and grief, with indigna-
tion and terror, when they were informed that the
unworthy successor of Julian relinquished the five
o9 Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. 145, p. 366. Such were the
natural hopes and wishes of a rhetorician.
60 The people of Carrhae, a city devoted to Paganism, buried
the inauspicious messenger under a pile of stones. Zosimus, 1.
iii. p. 196. Libanius, when he received the fatal intelligence,
cast his eye on his sword ; but he recollected that Plato had
condemned suicide, and that i:e must live to compose the pane-
g\Tic of Julian (Libanius de Vita sua, tom. ii. pp. 45, 46).
592 THE DECLINE AND FALL
provinces which had been acquired by the victory of
Galerius ; and that he shamefully surrendered to the
Barbarians the important city of Nisibis, the firmest
bulwark of the provinces of the East.^^ The deep and
dangerous question, how far the public faith should
be observed, when it becomes incompatible with the
public safety, was freely agitated in popular conver-
sation ; and some hopes were entertained that the
emperor would redeem his pusillanimous behaviour
by a splendid act of patriotic perfidy. The inflexible
spirit of the Roman senate had always disclaimed the
unequal conditions which were extorted from the
distress of her captive armies ; and, if it were neces-
sary to satisfy the national honour by delivering the
guilty general into the hands of the Barbarians, the
greatest part of the subjects of Jovian would have
cheerfully acquiesced in the precedent of ancient
times. '^^
But the emperor, whatever might be the limits of
his constitutional authority, was the absolute master
of the laws and arms of the state ; and the same
motives which had forced him to subscribe, now
pressed him to execute, the treaty of peace. He was
impatient to secure an empire at the expense of a few
provinces ; and the respecta])]e names of religion and
honour concealed the personal fears and the ambition
of Jovian. Notwithstanding the dutiful solicitations
of the inhabitants, decency, as well as prudence, for-
bade the emperor to lodge in the palace of Nisibis ;
but, the next morning after his arrival, Bineses, the
ambassador of Persia, entered the place, displayed
61 Ammianus and Eutropius may be admitted as fair and
credible witnesses of the public language and opinions. The
people of Antioch reviled an ignominious peace, which exposed
them to the Persians on a naked and defenceless frontier.
62 The Abb6 de la Bl^terie (Hist, de Jovien. torn. i. pp. 212-
227), though a severe casuist, has pronounced that Jovian was
not i30und to execute his promise ; since he could not dismember
the empire, nor alienate, without their consent, the allegiance
of his people. I have never found much delight or instruction
in such political metaphysics.
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 593
from the citadel the standard of the Great King, and
proclaimed_, in his name, the cruel alternative of exile
or servitude. The principal citizens of Nisibis. who,
till that fatal moment, had confided in the protection
of their sovereign, threw themselves at his feet. They
conjured him not to abandon, or, at least, not to
deliver, a faithful colony to the rage of a barbarian
tyrant, exasperated by the three successive defeats
which he had experienced under the walls of Nisibis.
They still possessed jirms and courage to repel the
invaders of their country ; they requested only the
permission of using them in their own defence ; and,
as soon. as they had asserted their independence, they
should implore the favour of being again admitted
into the rank of his subjects. Their arguments, their
eloquence, their tears, were ineffectual. Jovian alleged,
with some confusion, the sanctity of oaths 5 and, as
the reluctance with which he accepted the present of
a crown of gold convinced the citizens of their hope-
less condition, the advocate Sylvanus was provoked to
exclaim, '^O Emperor ! may you thus be crowned by
all the cities of your dominions !" Jovian, who, in a
few weeks, had assumed the habits of a prince, ^^ was
displeased with freedom, and offended with truth :
and, as he reasonably supposed that the discontent
of the people might incline them to submit to the
Persian government, he published an edict, under
pain of death, that they should leave the city within
the term of three days. Ammianus has delineated in
lively colours the scene of universal despair, which he
seems to have viewed with an eye of compassion. The
martial youth deserted, with indignant grief, the walls
which they had so gloriously defended ; the disconso-
late mourner dropt a last tear over the tomb of a son
or husband, which must soon be profaned by the rude
hand of a Barbarian master ; and the aged citizen
63 At Nisibis he performed a royal act. A brave officer, his
name-sake, who had been thought worthy of the purple, was
dragged from supper, thrown into a well, and stoned to death,
without any form of trial or evidence of guilt.
694 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.d,
kissed the threshold, and clung to the doors, of the
house where he had passed the cheerful and careless
hours of infancy. The highways were crowded with a
trembling multitude : the distinctions of rank, and
sex, and age, were lost in the general calamity. Every
one strove to bear away some fragment from the
wreck of his fortunes ; and, as they could not com-
mand the immediate service of an adequate number
of horses or waggons, they were obliged to leave be-
hind them the greatest part of their valuable effects.
The savage insensibility of Jovian appears to have
aggravated the hardships of these unhappy fugitives.
They were seated, however, in a new-built quarter of
Amida ; and that rising city, with the reinforcement
of a very considerable colony, soon recovered its
former splendour, and became the capital of Meso-
potamia. Similar orders were despatched by the
emperor for the evacuation of Singara and the castle
of the Moors ; and for the restitution of the five
provinces beyond the Tigris. Sapor enjoyed the glory
and the fruits of his victory ; and this ignominious
peace has justly been considered as a memorable aera
in the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The
predecessors of Jovian had sometimes relinquished
the dominion of distant and unprofitable provinces ;
but, since the foundation of the city, the genius of
Rome, the god Terminus, who guarded the boundaries
of the republic, had never retired before the sword of
a victorious enemy.
After Jovian had performed those engagements
which the voice of his people might have tempted him
to violate, he hastened away from the scene of his
disgrace, and proceeded with his whole court to enjoy
the luxury of Antioch. Without consulting the dic-
tates of religious zeal, he was prompted, by humanity
and gratitude, to bestow the last honours on the re-
mains of his deceased sovereign ; ^ and Procopius,
^ The Abb^'de la Bl^terie (torn. i. pp. 156, 209) handsomely
exposes the brutal bigotry of Baronius, who would have thrown
Julian to the dogs, ne cespititii quidem sepulturS. dignus.
365 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 695
who sincerely bewailed the loss of his kinsman, was
removed from the command of the army, under the
decent pretence of conducting the funeral. The corpse
of Julian was transported from Nisibis to Tarsus, in a
slow march of fifteen days ; and, as it passed through
the cities of the East, was saluted by the hostile factions,
with mournful lamentations and clamorous insults.
The Pagans already placed their beloved hero in the
rank of those gods whose worship he had restored ;
while the invectives of the Christians pursued the soul
of the apostate to hell, and his body to the grave. ^^
One party lamented the approaching ruin of their
altars ; the other celebrated the marvellous deliverance
of the church. The Christians applauded, in lofty
and ambiguous strains, the stroke of divine venge-
ance, which had been so long suspended over the
guilty head of Julian. They acknowledged that the
death of the tyrant, at the instant he expired be-
yond the Tigris, was revealed to the saints of Egypt,
Syria and Cappadocia ; ^^ and, instead of suffering him
to fall by the Persian darts, their indiscretion ascribed
the heroic deed to the obscure hand of feome mortal or
immortal champion of the faith.*^^ Such imprudent
declarations were eagerly adopted by the malice, or
credulity, of their adversaries ; ^ who darkly insinu-
65 Compare the sophist and the saint (Libanius, Monod. torn,
ii. p. 251 and Orat. Parent, c. 145, p. 367, c. 156, p. 377), with
Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. iv. pp. 125-132. The Christian orator
faintly mutters some exhortations to modesty and forgiveness :
but he is well satisfied that the real sufferings of Julian will far
exceed the fabulous torments of Ixion or Tantalus.
^ Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. p. 549) has col-
lected these visions. Some saint or angel was observed to be
absent in the night on a secret expedition, &c.
67 Sozomen (1. vi. 2) applauds the Greek doctrine of tyran-
nicide ; but the whole passage, which a Jesuit might have
translated, is prudently suppressed by the president Cousin.
68 Immediately after the death of Julian, an uncertain rumotir
was scattered, telo cecidisse Romano. It was carried, by some
deserters, to the Persian camp ; and the Romans were re-
proached as the assassins of the emperor by Sapor and his
subjects. It was urged, as a decisive proof, that no Persian had
696 THE DECLINE AND FALL a.) .
ated, or confidently asserted, that the governors of
the church had instigated and directed the fanaticism
of a domestic eissassin. Above sixteen years after the
death of Julian, the charge was solemnly and vehe-
mently urged, in a public oration, addressed by Liba-
nius to the emperor Theodosius. His suspicions are
unsupported by fact or argument ; and we can only
esteem the generous zeal of the sophist of Antioch for
the cold and neglected ashes of his friend.^^
It was an ancient custom in the funerals, as well as in
the triumphs, of the Romans, that the voice of praise
should be corrected by that of satire and ridicule ; and
that, in the midst of the splendid pageants, which
displayed the glory of the living or of the dead, their
imperfections should not be concealed from the eyes
of the world.™ Tliis custom was practised in the
funeral of Julian. The comedians, who resented his
contempt and aversion for the theatre, exhibited, with
the applause of a Christian audience, the lively and
exaggerated representation of the faults and follies of
the deceased emperor. His various character and singu-
lar manners afforded an ample scope for pleasantry and
ridicule."^ In the exercise of his uncommon talents,
he often descended below the majesty of his rank.
Alexander was transformed into Diogenes ; the
philosopher was degraded into a priest. The purity
appeared to claim the promised reward. But the flying horse-
man, who darted the fatal javelin, might be ignorant of its
effect ; or he might be slain in the same action. Aminianus
neither feels nor inspires a suspicion.
69 The Orator scatters suspicions, demands an inquiry, and
insinuates that proofs might still be obtained. He ascribes the
success of the Huns to the criminal neglect of revenging Julian's
death.
'0 At the funeral of Vespasian, the comedian who personated
that frugal emperor anxiously inquired, how much it cost? —
Fourscore thousand pounds (centies). — Give me the tenth part
of the sum, and throw my body into the Tiber.
"1 Gregory (Orat. iv. pp. 119, 120) compares this supposed
ignominy and ridicule to the funeral honours of Constantius.
whose body was chaunted over mount Taurus by a choir of
angels.
365 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 597
of his virtue was sullied by excessive vanity : hia
superstition disturbed the peace, and endangered the
safety, of a mighty empire ; and his irregular sallies
were the less entitled to indulgence^ as they appear
to be the laborious efforts of art^ or even of affecta-
tion. The remains of Julian were interred at Tarsus
in Cilicia ; but his stately tomb Avhicli arose in that
city, on the banks of the cold and limpid Cydnus/^
was displeasing to the faithful friends, who loved and
revered the memory of that extraordinary man. The
philosopher expressed a very reasonable wish that the
disciple of Plato might have reposed amidst the groves
of the academy : while the soldiers exclaimed in bolder
accents that the ashes of Julian should have been
mingled with those of Caesar, in the field of Mars,
and among the ancient monuments of Roman virtue.
The history of princes does not very frequently renew
the example of a similar competition.
'2 Quintus Curtius, i. iii. c. 4. The luxuriancy of his descrip-
tions has been often censured. Yet it was almost the duty of
the historiar^ to describe a river, whose waters had nearly proved
fatal to Alexander.
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The World's Classics
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*i. Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Fourth Impression.
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The World's Classics
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4i> 48, 53. Buckle's History of Civilization in England.
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42, 56, *76. Chaucer's Works. From the Text of Prof.
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